Dive Brief:
- Emergent BioSolutions will lay off nearly 70 employees at its Lansing, Michigan, facility, according to a company notice on Aug. 26.
- The jobs cuts, which are in manufacturing and site operations, will take place over the next few months. About 155 employees will remain, an Emergent BioSolutions spokesperson told Manufacturing Dive in an email.
- The biotech company’s most recent headcount reduction is the latest in its years-long restructuring and cost-cutting plans.
Dive Insight:
Emergent BioSolutions has been pivoting away from its contract development and manufacturing business segment and implementing restructuring changes since January 2023. Including the Lansing job cuts, the company has laid off nearly 900 employees total, according to a securities filing.
The company will have reduced its workforce by approximately 50% by the end of this year, which will result in about $110 million in savings, President and CEO Joe Papa said in its Q2 earnings call.
In May, the company shuttered two drug production facilities in Baltimore and Rockville, Maryland, and laid off 300 employees. The costs associated with the restructuring plan is $17.2 million so far, according to the filing.
For the Lansing facility, the company is still maintaining its anthrax vaccine manufacturing capabilities, which it received an over $250 million contract to supply the U.S. government for in July.
Projected sales for its MCM products, including anthrax and smallpox drug products, are now $455 million to $490 million this year, according to a Q2 investor presentation.
“Emergent remains a long-standing partner of the U.S. government and maintaining the anthrax manufacturing capability in Lansing is aligned with current and future global preparedness efforts,” the company said in a statement.
Emergent’s other revenue driver is its opioid overdose reversal drug Narcan, which saw sales of $120 million in the quarter.
This isn’t the first time the company has reduced its workforce at the Lansing facility. In March, Emergent BioSolutions furloughed 130 employees due to a “lack of clarity from the U.S. government related to the timing and scale” of its Cyfendus vaccine procurement, which also treats anthrax.
