Bayer-owned BlueRock Therapeutics is laying off 50 employees and shuttering its research labs in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in order to focus its resources on its priority cell therapies.
The layoffs are spread across all of BlueRock’s sites, including the labs in Cambridge, a spokesperson for the biotech explained to Fierce via email. The Bayer subsidiary will continue to locate its headquarters in Cambridge, with research conducted at its New York and Toronto sites.
These changes are the result of a “strategic decision to streamline our pipeline and organizational structure to focus our resources on [our] priority programs,” the spokesperson said.
Within the company's pipeline, the spokesperson name-checked bemdaneprocel, a pluripotent stem cell–derived therapy that entered a phase 3 trial for Parkinson’s disease at the start of this year. At the time, Bayer touted the milestone as the first registrational phase 3 study for an investigational allogeneic cell therapy in the neurodegenerative disease.
In its statement to Fierce, BlueRock also pointed to the ophthalmic asset OpCT-001, an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) therapy that entered the clinic this year with the aim of treating primary photoreceptor diseases.
“The successful advancement of these programs …. is important for the continued growth and success of our company,” the spokesperson said.
BlueRock said it would continue to develop its preclinical cell editing and immune evasion platforms, such as the dopaminergic neuron progenitor DA02 for Parkinson’s, its myeloid platform for neurodegenerative disorders and iPSC-derived programs for treating vision loss.
"As our neurology and ophthalmology programs progress in the clinic, it's become clear that we need to reduce the size and scope of our pipeline and focus our resources on advancing these programs and stop our work in cardiology and immunology," BlueRock CEO Seth Ettenberg, Ph.D., wrote in a June 25 post on LinkedIn.
"BlueRock is navigating the familiar biotech industry paradox of having to make challenging strategic decisions that impact people and programs while simultaneously making major strides toward fulfilling our mission," the CEO's post reads.
This isn't the first time BlueRock has shrunk its head count by about 50 employees. Back in 2023, the company waved goodbye to 12% of its workforce across three sites while refocusing its pipeline on assets such as bemdaneprocel and OpCT-001.
BlueRock’s parent company Bayer is in the process of its own reorganization, with CEO Bill Anderson warning investors earlier this year that 2025 will likely be the “toughest year for our turnaround.”
Editor's note: This story was updated at 2:45 p.m. ET on June 25 to include details from a LinkedIn post by BlueRock's CEO.