British drug discoverer Sygnature Discovery plans to lay off 60 employees in the U.K. and an undisclosed number of staffers in Canada, Fierce Biotech has learned.
In the U.K., 38 full-time employees in Sygnature’s chemistry department are set to be laid off, according to an internal company slide obtained by Fierce. Other teams affected include drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics, protein science and computational sciences, among others.
In Canada, meanwhile, layoffs are proposed in the protein science and bioscience departments. Those reductions are set to be “announced locally,” according to the slide.
“In current market conditions our industry is highly competitive. We are proactively looking at both costs and business drivers so that we remain at the forefront of the CRO market,” Sygnature CEO Simon Hirst, Ph.D., told Fierce in a statement. The company has started the nation’s required consultation process with affected employees, he said, “predominantly in the U.K., with a small impact in Canada.”
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“Our focus will be on supporting our employees as well as maintaining our high levels of service to customers,” Hirst added. “These plans do not impact our ability to partner with our customers, existing and new.”
Headquartered in Nottingham, Sygnature also has U.K. sites in Glasgow, Alderley Park and Macclesfield, as well as in Canada’s Montreal and Quebec City. The CRO employs more than 1,000 people, according to its website.
Sygnature is not the only CRO to feel the sting of today’s competitive market. Charles River Laboratories has been contending with slipping revenues and is enacting a new strategic plan as a result, with 70 staffers recently laid off as part of a site relocation tied to the pivot.