Gilead Cuts Jobs! 179 Employees Laid Off as CAR-T Therapy Growth Slows

According to an update released on November 18, 2024, Gilead plans to relieve 104 employees at its Foster City headquarters on March 14, 2025.

On or about November 14, 2024, Gilead also announced that it would close its Seattle office, resulting in 75 employees being laid off, effective January 17, 2025. In addition, Gilead plans to close a Kite facility in Philadelphia by mid-2024, and it is unclear how many jobs will be cut.

These decisions come shortly after Gilead recently announced its third-quarter financial results. According to the report, revenue for the quarter reached $7.5 billion, up 7 percent from a year earlier. In the first three quarters, total revenue was $21.185 billion, up 6% from the same period last year. However, Gilead's cell therapy segment appears to be showing signs of slowing growth, with sales revenue of $485 million in the third quarter of 2024, flat from the same period last year. Among them, Yescarta, its leading CAR-T product by sales, has shown a downward trend, which has attracted the attention of the industry.

Despite Gilead's leadership in commercializing CAR-T therapies and its success in expanding Yescarta's indications from third-line to second-line therapies, the scope for future sales growth for Yescarta appears relatively limited as market competition intensifies.

In Gilead's third quarter earnings release, Yescarta's sales growth has shown signs of weakness, with revenue of $387 million in the third quarter of 2024, down 1% year-over-year and down 7% sequentially. Sales growth for Tecartus, the second CAR-T product to market, was similarly challenging, with sales of $98 million in the third quarter of 2024, up 2% year-over-year and down 8% sequentially.

So far, the huge acquisition has not brought Gilead the expected benefits, and the two CAR-T therapies on the market have brought Gilead a cumulative $7.038 billion in sales. The current downward sales trend of Yescarta and the slow sales growth of Tecartus indicate that the expected time to recover the investment costs may need to be further extended.