Human Capital Pulse: Life Sciences | July 2026: Investment, Cuts & a Calmer Half-Year
July's Life Sciences edition: the UK Sector Plan's £3bn year, Novartis's fourth New Jersey cut and H1 layoffs, plus half-year turnover across six peers.
HUMAN CAPITAL PULSE: LIFE SCIENCES · ISSUE 7 · JULY 2026
A monthly Human Capital benchmark for HR and People leaders in Life Sciences: the sector's talking points and how culture, workforce and talent compare across your peers, built on Deltabase data covering 5,500+ companies and 11M employee reviews.
Editor's note
Half-year verdicts dominated July. The UK government marked a year of its Life Sciences Sector Plan with more than £3 billion of investment, Novartis cut another 322 roles in New Jersey, and BioSpace's tally showed first-half layoffs almost level with 2025. Below we add Deltabase's own half-year read: employee turnover across six large employers in the first six months of 2026.
Leroy Hall, Deltabase
The month in three
1. UK Sector Plan claims £3bn and a 66,000-job ambition
What happened: On 9 July the government said the Life Sciences Sector Plan had attracted more than £3 billion of public and private investment in its first 12 months, including AstraZeneca's £300 million for its Cambridge headquarters and an AI drug-discovery facility in Macclesfield. Its Jobs Plan targets 66,000 additional jobs in priority occupations by 2035, in a sector employing about 360,000 people.
The Deltabase lens: AI capability is arriving through hiring. In Deltabase Talent data, 4.5% of AstraZeneca's workforce hold AI skills, rising to 10.2% among people who joined in the last year.
So what: A 66,000-job target means more competition for the same scientific and digital talent. Know which skills your recent hires bring in, and which you will need to build.
2. Novartis makes a fourth cut at East Hanover
What happened: BioSpace reported on 7 July that Novartis will lay off 322 employees at East Hanover, New Jersey, from 2 October, its fourth round at the site in 2026, taking the site's total to 572. Including the planned closure of its Wehr plant in Germany, Novartis has announced or disclosed at least 792 cuts this year.
The Deltabase lens: Despite the rounds, Deltabase Employee Turnover data shows Novartis's monthly turnover rates added up to 3.5% across January to June 2026, against 5.0% in the same months of 2025, with 5,064 hires and 3,047 departures over the half. Employees rated Career Progression at −43.1% in 2025, little changed from −44.8% in 2024.
So what: Targeted cuts can sit alongside low overall turnover, so the risk is local. Review departures site by site and team by team, not only at group level.
3. H1 layoffs level with 2025 as fewer companies cut
What happened: BioSpace's half-year analysis on 23 July found H1 2026 layoffs affected 2% fewer employees than H1 2025, while the number of companies cutting fell 58%. To match 2025's 43,242 affected employees, second-half cuts would need to reach 28,815. Deal-making rose, with 52 M&A deals in H1 against 32 a year earlier.
The Deltabase lens: Commercial-heavy workforces carry more exposure when portfolios are reshaped. Sales accounts for 21.2% of AbbVie's workforce and 15.5% of Eli Lilly's in Deltabase Workforce data, against 9.3% at AstraZeneca, 7.2% at GSK and 5.4% at Novartis.
So what: Fewer, larger cuts concentrated in a handful of companies means risk is uneven. Map which of your functions would be in scope if the second half accelerates.
Stat of the month
5 of 6: large Life Sciences employers recorded lower turnover in H1 2026 than in H1 2025; Eli Lilly was the exception
| Company | NSS 2025 | Turnover Jan–Jun 2026 | Turnover Jan–Jun 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| AstraZeneca | +10.4% | 4.1% | 5.7% |
| GSK | +9.5% | 3.9% | 4.5% |
| Novartis | +14.9% | 3.5% | 5.0% |
| Eli Lilly | +8.4% | 3.8% | 3.5% |
| AbbVie | +6.6% | 4.1% | 4.9% |
| Pfizer | +11.6% | 3.4% | 5.1% |
Source: Deltabase Employee Turnover data, monthly turnover rates (departures divided by the previous month's headcount) added up for January to June; Deltabase Culture data, Employee Net Sentiment Score (−100% to +100%), 2025.
Spotlight: AstraZeneca vs Pfizer
Both improved their culture scores in 2025: AstraZeneca to +10.4% (+3.3 pts) and Pfizer to +11.6% (+5.6 pts). Pfizer's people moved less in the first half, with turnover of 3.4% against AstraZeneca's 4.1%, and its median tenure is longer (6.1 years against 4.9). But Pfizer trails clearly on Career Progression (−54.8% against −32.7%). On talent the two are level, with 4.5% of each workforce holding AI skills, though Pfizer's newer joiners are more AI-skilled (15.1% against 10.2%).
For your People team
- Run your own H1 turnover review by function and site, and compare it with the same months last year.
- Read turnover alongside Career Progression sentiment: low turnover with weak progression scores can signal people who stay but disengage.
- Profile the skills of last year's joiners to see whether hiring is closing your AI and digital gaps.
See how your Human Capital compares with your Life Sciences peers. Book a 30-minute benchmark walkthrough across culture, workforce and talent. Book a walkthrough →
Sources: GOV.UK (9 July 2026); BioSpace (7 July 2026); BioSpace (23 July 2026); Deltabase Culture data; Deltabase Workforce data; Deltabase Talent data; Deltabase Employee Turnover data.