Gaithersburg, Md.-based Emergent Biosolutions, which received FDA approval for the opioid overdose drug Narcan earlier this year, is cutting 400 jobs.
Emergent Biosolutions, based in Gaithersburg, Md., received FDA approval for a commercial version of the opioid overdose drug Narcan earlier this year and is hiring 400 people, more than 15% of its workforce. are reducing.
The company has also shifted away from contract development and manufacturing to focus on its core products, including Narcan, the only naloxone over-the-counter nasal spray currently FDA-approved.
Job reductions will also take place at Emergent’s Bayview facility in Baltimore, its pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Rockville, and another facility in Canton, Massachusetts.
Emergent will also eliminate the position of Chief Operating Officer. COO Adam Havey will leave the company at the end of September.
The company said it will save more than $100 million a year from reducing its workforce and reducing investment in its contract manufacturing business.
For many years, Emergent has supplied the federal government’s national stockpile of vaccines and medicines against threats such as anthrax, smallpox and Ebola.
“We remain committed to working with U.S. and allied governments to help address public health threats, while also addressing the opioid overdose epidemic in the U.S. and helping people at risk. “We’ve been successful in increasing access to over-the-counter Narcan Nasal Spray to provide temporary reprieve,” said Paul Williams, senior vice president of products.
Emergent is currently looking for a new CEO. Former CEO Robert Kramer Sr. retired in June.
Emergent’s decision to de-emphasize manufacturing was ultimately spurred on by Johnson & Johnson, with which Emergent had a production contract, in the wake of highly publicized mistakes in vaccine production in 2021 and 2022. This led to the disposal of hundreds of millions of doses of the new coronavirus vaccine.
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