Switzerland’s pharmaceutical giant Roche (ROG.S) has no plans for job cuts and remains in stable business health, CEO Thomas Schinecker stated in a Swiss newspaper on Sunday. This reassurance aims to bolster confidence among employees and stakeholders following recent challenges in the company’s drug development efforts.

Roche’s share price has significantly declined since its peak in April 2022, with its pharmaceutical division facing setbacks, including the cancellation of two late-stage trials for an experimental leukemia treatment. Last month, the company also announced the discontinuation of another trial. Additionally, Roche postponed the launch of an Alzheimer’s drug, and its gene therapy program faced a blow after a trial for a hemophilia treatment failed.

The pharma giant’s latest setback was the failure of its investigational Duchenne muscular dystrophy treatment, fordadistrogene movaparvovec. The drug missed the primary efficacy endpoint in a Phase III study, leading Pfizer to announce it was cutting 75 jobs at its Sanford facility in North Carolina.

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Other companies have also recently trimmed their workforces. According to an SEC filing, German biotech Evotec will cut 400 jobs globally. The company provides services to biopharmaceutical companies and offers pipeline co-creation partnerships.

Adaptimmune, a biotech focused on cancer immunotherapy, has cut 71 staff in its headquarters and research centers in Cambridge and Lexington, Massachusetts. The company also halted enrollment in the SURPASS-3 trial of uza-cel, its TCR T cell therapy for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. The firm said it will focus on advancing other programs.

In this episode, host Nicolai talks with Thomas Schinecker about his vision for the future of medicine and how technology like AI is transforming the industry. He also discusses the challenges of developing new medicines and explains why only one in ten medicines that go through clinical trials reach patients. In addition, he discusses the rapid rise of China’s pharma industry and how Europe can keep up with it.