Evotec has escalated its already substantial reorganization, plotting an additional round of layoffs and site closures that will impact one-sixth of the German drug discoverer’s workforce.
The company plans to close four sites and lay off around 800 employees, according to a March 10 announcement, a significant fraction of Evotec’s approximately 4,800-strong staff.
The cuts signal the next phase of Evotec’s ongoing realignment, with this overture referred to as “Horizon.” The company had already reduced its total site count from 19 to 14 between 2024 and 2025, according to the release, and now will whittle that footprint down to 10 sites over the next two years.
When the process is done, Evotec will have closed sites in Framingham, Massachusetts; Lyon, France; and Abingdon, U.K., among others, according to a March 10 presentation.
“Following the disciplined cost actions implemented over the past two years and the strategic priorities we set in 2025, we are now transforming our operating model,” Evotec CEO Christian Wojczewski, Ph.D., said in the release. “Horizon positions Evotec for stronger performance through 2027 and lays the foundation for further optimization and intelligent scaling toward 2030.”
Evotec’s stock has been sliding downward since Horizon’s unveiling, from $3.09 per share at the end of Monday to $2.49 at 12:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
The first effects of Horizon should be felt in the second half of this year, with the plan set to be almost fully implemented by the end of 2027, Evotec said. All in all, the company expects the measures to generate 75 million euros ($86.78 million) in savings by the end of 2027, with costs running around 100 million euros ($115.71 million) spread out from 2026 to 2028.
Evotec also anticipates the hits to its bottom line will take other forms too, including asset impairments.
The new layoffs are in addition to the 600 job cuts that occurred between March 2024 and June 2025, a number that increased from an initially expected 400 terminations. In 2024, Evotec swatted away a potential merger with Halozyme Therapeutics, with Evotec leadership expressing “strong conviction” in the company’s standalone strategy.
While its restructuring is more substantial, Evotec is far from the only life science contractor doing some downsizing. Charles River Laboratories is selling off 7% of its business, including its contract manufacturing outfit and some European discovery assets, in a move that also involves layoffs and site closures.
Meanwhile, the shuttering of Evotec’s Abingdon site marks another blow to the U.K.’s life sciences industry, which is also dealing with the fallout of Big Pharma pullbacks and layoffs at local CRO Sygnature Discovery.