Laid off from Amgen.

What Amgen layoffs have meant for employees

Amgen ended 2025 with far more staff than it had when its 2014 restructuring began, going by its 2025 annual report and the Pacific Coast Business Times count from that summer, which is cold comfort if your own role is the one going. Amgen's 2021 layoff letter to Thousand Oaks, as The Acorn reported it, said the number of separations could shrink for affected employees who applied for or were offered another Amgen position. If you're being let go and want to stay, you can ask how applying for or accepting another Amgen position would affect your planned separation.

Several of Amgen's cuts have moved work between sites as well as ending jobs. In 2014 Amgen set out to close its Washington and Colorado sites and concentrate research in South San Francisco and Cambridge, by the Business Times' account, and in 2017 it told staff in an email obtained by The Acorn that it was looking to consolidate its finance, information services and human resources work in Tampa. That same report counted transfer offers for about 50 Newbury Park staff to Tampa and about 100 Thousand Oaks workers to South San Francisco and Cambridge. A move can mean putting a house on the market, moving children between schools or living apart for a while, and that's a hard trade to weigh. If a transfer is on the table, it can help to get in writing what the pay and benefits would be, whether relocation help comes with it, what happens if you decline, including whether a package would still be available, and how long the offer stays open.

Amgen's 2023 cuts came in waves, from January through the Horizon roles in October, by BioSpace's tally. Getting through one round only to watch the next one come is draining, and it's reasonable to want a straight answer from your manager about what each reorganization means for your team's work.

For people who came to Amgen with a company it bought, cuts have arrived both soon after a deal and years later. Onyx Pharmaceuticals joined Amgen in 2013 and its South San Francisco site was set to close in 2015, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal; Amgen moved to cut overlapping Horizon roles within weeks of the 2023 deal, a spokesperson told BioSpace, and Horizon's Rockville office filed its own notice with Maryland's labor department in 2026. If you joined through an acquisition and are trying to read where you stand, the overlap Amgen cited for Horizon is a fair question to raise with your manager.

Amgen's California filing for its January 2023 layoffs may have counted people who worked elsewhere. The Pacific Coast Business Times said that filing didn't mean all 305 people reported to the Thousand Oaks office in person, because remote workers across the country likely report to headquarters. If you got a notice or are trying to find one and you worked remotely, it's worth asking which Amgen site it was filed under. The filings in our WARN tracker come from California, Washington and Maryland, and California unemployment benefits and Maryland unemployment benefits each explain how a claim is filed in that state.

In 2014 Amgen also paired its restructuring with a voluntary transition program, which a spokeswoman told the Business Times would provide an enhanced benefits package to qualifying staff ready to move on. If a voluntary program reaches your team, it can help to compare its terms with whatever an involuntary layoff would bring, and if a severance agreement arrives after a cut, negotiating severance covers what's worth raising before you sign.

A sourced history of Amgen layoffs

• July 2026, about 40 Amgen jobs

  About 40 employees were being let go as part of ongoing efforts to align operations with strategic objectives, an Amgen spokesperson told BioSpace.

• March 2026, Horizon Therapeutics notice for Rockville, Maryland

  Horizon Therapeutics USA filed a March 9 notice covering 22 employees at its Rockville office, logged by Maryland's labor department as a mass layoff with no recall, effective May 8.

• October 2023, 350 Horizon roles after Amgen's purchase

  Weeks after closing its $27.8 billion Horizon Therapeutics purchase, Amgen was letting go of 350 people, BioSpace reported, in Horizon roles a spokesperson said overlapped Amgen teams, with separations from December 30 through 2024; more than 80% of Horizon staff were to be absorbed into Amgen roles.

• March 2023, 450 Amgen jobs in a second round

  Amgen announced 450 layoffs, 2% of its workforce, on March 16 and told those affected the same day, saying in a statement to the Pacific Coast Business Times that it was realigning its expense base amid pressure on drug prices and high inflation.

• January 2023, about 300 Amgen jobs

  About 300 employees lost their jobs in organizational changes Amgen said would "better manage against industry headwinds," according to BioSpace, and the state filing the Pacific Coast Business Times obtained listed 305 at the Thousand Oaks office.

• January 2021, about 530 Amgen jobs, mainly in sales

  Amgen planned to lay off about 530 U.S. employees by April 2, about 100 of them at its Newbury Park headquarters, according to a January 28 letter to Thousand Oaks, and The Acorn reported the cuts were aimed mainly at sales staff nationwide.

• March 2017, nearly 500 notices as Amgen moved roles

  Nearly 500 Thousand Oaks-area employees got notices dated March 22, according to The Acorn, saying they would be moved, reassigned or laid off over 18 months as Amgen shifted positions to San Francisco, Boston and Tampa.

• March 2015, Amgen closing Onyx's South San Francisco site

  Amgen planned to close the South San Francisco site of Onyx Pharmaceuticals, bought in 2013, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported, laying off 300 of about 750 workers there at the end of the year and moving others to Thousand Oaks.

• October 2014, Amgen restructuring widened to 3,500 to 4,000 positions

  A July plan, reported by the Pacific Coast Business Times, to cut 2,400 to 2,900 of roughly 20,000 jobs and close Washington and Colorado sites grew in October, when Amgen's October 2014 8-K set the total at 3,500 to 4,000 positions by the end of 2015.

What to do if you're laid off from Amgen

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Amgen's biggest hubs: California, Maryland. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Amgen's hub states run: California, Maryland, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.