After buying out Flexion for $450M, Pacira quietly lays off 110 of its employees
After being acquired by Pacira Biosciences in a $450 million deal, it looks like Flexion Therapeutics quietly brought out the axe.
While details remain few and short, here’s what we know: The company reported a layoff to Massachusetts as part of the state’s Worker Adjustment and Retaining Act (WARN) — something companies are obliged to do when there are impending layoffs — and listed in last week’s report. According to the report, 110 employees had been shown the door. The company listed the layoff date as Jan. 18 with no corporate announcement.
WARN originally received notice Flexion would let employees go on Nov. 22, only a month or so after Pacira’s acquisition of the biotech was announced.
The biotech, which once drew attention for its lead non-opioid painkiller Zilretta for knee pain, got bought out in a steep discount last year — brought down from a potential 10-figure buyout to $450 million at $8.50 a share.
Pacira did not respond to a request for comment.
Flexion wasn’t the only biotech listed in that WARN report, either — cancer-focused biopharma Decipher Pharmaceuticals reported a layoff as well, giving the proverbial pink slip to 116 of their employees on Jan. 29.
Decipher said at the time that the restructuring would lay off 140 employees to help keep Deciper going through 2024.
Biogen has also begun laying off employees this week. According to a senior official within Biogen, more than 100 people have been laid off so far.
