Anthrax Vaccine Maker Emergent BioSolutions Lays Off 91 in Michigan
October 6, 2016
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Emergent BioSolutions , with headquarters in Rockville, Maryland, announced it is cutting 91 jobs at its facility in Lansing, Michigan.
Emergent manufactures BioThrax, the only anthrax vaccine licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The company was founded on September 5, 1998 under the name BioPort. Five years ago the company was awarded a five-year contract by the federal government worth $1.25 billion to manufacture 44.8 million doses of BioThrax.
In 2005, the company built a new plant, called Building 55. Before that, vaccine manufacturing was in Building 12. Building 55 has the capability of manufacturing more than 20 million doses annually, compared to 9 million in Building 12. The newer manufacturing processes and capabilities requires fewer workers, which sparked the job cuts.
Mark Alley, the company’s vice president of Global Protective Services and Public Affairs, told the Lansing State Journal that 28 employees chose a severance package. For this layoff round, the company offered employees twice the typical severance pay in order to meet new staffing requirements. Another 63 were assisted in resume development and a job service by a contractor employed by Emergent.
The layoffs were in manufacturing, quality and engineering departments. Once the layoffs are completed, in about 30 days, the Lansing facility will employ a total of 286 people.
Late last year, Emergent spun off a standalone publicly-traded company that would focus on novel oncology and hematology therapeutics, Aptevo Therapeutics. The spinoff was completed August 1 of this year, and is located in Seattle. Its core technology is called ADAPTIR (modular protein technology).
“Today is the culmination of the hard work of our entire team at Aptevo, and marks a major milestone for our company,” said Marvin White, Aptevo’s president and chief executive officer, in an August statement. “As a standalone company, we believe we are very well-positioned to create value for shareholders and opportunities for our employees by delivering on our mission to extend and meaningfully improve patients’ lives. We are excited to continue our strong progress advancing immuno-oncology therapies with our innovative ADAPTIR platform technology and related pipeline, and to serve patients with our portfolio of immunology and hematology focused commercial products. Looking ahead, we also believe we can drive value by exploring new collaborations and partnership opportunities that leverage the potential of the ADAPTIR platform and expand our pipeline.”
The company’s lead product is Otlertuzumab (anti-CD37), a humanized monospecific ADAPTIR molecule that targets CD378. CD37 is found on normal and transformed B cells, and are related to a number of cellular processes, including cell adhesion, proliferation, differentiation, motility, and tumor invasion.
The spinoff was designed to allow Emergent to focus on its core biodefense and emerging infectious diseases. It also removed the costs of research and development generally associated with its biosciences division.
On September 30, 2016, Emergent announced it had inked a multi-year contract with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. The deal is to develop and deliver NuThrax, an anthrax vaccine with CPG 7909 adjuvant, known as AV7909, its next-generation anthrax vaccine candidate. The contract is worth up to $1.6 billion and last for five years.