Emergent BioSolutions To Cut 400 Jobs At MD, MA Plants: Report

GAITHERSBURG, MD — Maryland-based Emergent BioSolutions, which came under federal scrutiny during the height of the coronavirus pandemic for producing millions of contaminated Johnson & Johnson vaccine COVID-19 vaccines, will lay off 400 workers and scale back production at some facilities to cut costs, according to a report by Reuters.

The company plans to reduce operations at its Baltimore and Canton, Massachusetts, plants and eliminate the chief operating officer role, Reuters reported. The company plans to focus on its core products, including the overdose reversal nasal spray Narcan and anthrax vaccines, the report said.

Reuters reported that the cuts are expected to save $100 million annually once fully implemented.

Emergent's struggles came to public view in late March 2021 when quality control checks revealed cross-contamination at the Baltimore facility, which was producing substances to be used in COVID-19 vaccine doses from both J&J and AstraZeneca.

In April 2021, FDA investigators flagged a series of shortcomings at the plant, including failure to properly disinfect equipment and improper training of employees.

The FDA shut down the Baltimore factory in the same month after the company was forced to trash the equivalent of tens of millions of doses of vaccine it was making under contract for J&J, The Associated Press reported. The bulk vaccine was contaminated with an ingredient for AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, which was made in the same factory.

The situation also prompted an investigation by congressional Democrats, who released a memo detailing Emergent's $27 million-a-month federal contract and documents showing that a Trump administration adviser flagged risks at the Emergent plant in June 2020.

The government allowed production to resume at the Baltimore plant in August 2021. Emergent received $330 million in taxpayer funds before the federal government terminated the contract in November 2021, AP reported.

In August 2022, a Congressional panel ordered the company to destroy about 135 million doses of J&J's COVID-19 vaccine produced at the Baltimore facility, according to AP. The announcement followed a report in May 2022 that detailed how 400 million vaccine doses produced at the plant previously had to be trashed.

At one point, Emergent chief executive Robert Kramer apologized and blamed the factory's problems on the complexity of scaling up production quickly on two different vaccines.

Patch news partner Maryland Matters contributed to this report.