Sanofi is cutting 229 jobs at Blueprint Medicines in Cambridge, a year after closing its $9.1 billion acquisition of the rare-disease biotech, according to a state filing. The layoffs, which affect Massachusetts workers, will roll out in phases between October 9, 2026 and late June 2027, per the state filing.
The cuts amount to roughly a third of Blueprint's pre-acquisition workforce, since the company reported 682 full-time employees in an April 2025 SEC filing, as detailed by BioSpace. As The Boston Globe reports, a Sanofi spokesperson said affected workers had already been informed and would receive multiple avenues of support through their transitions. The spokesperson added that the company made thoughtful organizational decisions to align its structure with long-term business priorities and the needs of its commercial portfolio and pipeline.
Paris-headquartered Sanofi employed nearly 4,200 people in Massachusetts last year, the Globe's reporting notes. Many Blueprint employees are joining Sanofi rather than being cut outright, and the company filed records with the state disclosing the broader layoffs.
Closing Blueprint's Old Cambridge Offices
Beyond the headcount reduction, Sanofi is shuttering two legacy Blueprint facilities in Cambridge, including the biotech's former global headquarters at 45 Sidney Street, and shifting remaining staff to Sanofi's campus at Cambridge Crossing, according to the same Globe account and separately detailed by Fierce Pharma. Blueprint brought Sanofi a pipeline of experimental immunology treatments along with a marketed medicine for systemic mastocytosis, according to the Globe's reporting.
That drug, Ayvakit (avapritinib), generated $479 million in 2024 net revenues and was projected to reach between $700 million and $720 million in 2025, with long-term estimates climbing to $2 billion annually by 2030, according to DCAT Value Chain Insights. The acquisition itself was structured with $9.1 billion in upfront cash, or $129 per share, plus non-tradeable contingent value rights worth up to $400 million tied to milestones for pipeline candidate BLU-808, bringing the deal's potential total value to $9.5 billion, the same outlet reports.
Post-Merger Trims Followed Earlier Research Cuts
The layoffs aren't the first restructuring move since Sanofi finalized the Blueprint deal in July 2025. Four months after closing, in November 2025, a joint governance committee conducted a portfolio review that led Sanofi to discontinue undisclosed preclinical Blueprint research programs in order to focus resources on lead clinical assets like elenestinib, according to PharmaLive.
Notably, the job cuts come just a month after Sanofi signed an early lease extension for its 900,000-square-foot, two-building headquarters campus at Cambridge Crossing, as Hoodline previously reported. That timing underscores that while Sanofi is closing acquired satellite offices and trimming legacy Blueprint staff, it remains firmly rooted in Cambridge, where it opened the consolidated 900,000-square-foot campus in 2022 and is now moving remaining Blueprint employees.
Legal Scrutiny and a Cooling Biotech Sector
The layoffs are also drawing legal attention. Class-action firm Strauss Borrelli PLLC announced Monday that it is investigating whether Sanofi and Blueprint Medicines violated federal WARN Act requirements, which mandate 60 days' written advance notice before mass layoffs. Employers found to have skipped that notice period can be held liable for up to 60 days of back pay and benefits.
The reduction lands amid broader headwinds across Massachusetts life sciences. Biopharma R&D employment in the state fell 1.7% in 2024, its first R&D job contraction in recent memory, while early 2025 biotech venture capital funding dropped 17% year-over-year, Hoodline has reported. Just days earlier, Cambridge-based eye cancer biotech Aura cut 20% of its staff to fund a late-stage trial, one of several recent Massachusetts life sciences workforce reductions that have also included cuts across Greater Lowell's labs and factories.
Even as it pares back Blueprint's legacy footprint, Sanofi has signaled a much larger U.S. investment push. The company has announced plans to invest at least $20 billion in its U.S. operations by 2030, targeting expanded research initiatives and manufacturing upgrades across multiple states, where it currently employs roughly 13,000 workers nationwide.
