Emergent BioSolutions, a Gaithersburg, Maryland-based specialty bio/pharmaceutical company and contract manufacturer, has announced it is reducing investment in and de-emphasizing focus on its CDMO services business and reducing operations at multiple facilities. 

Emergent will reduce operations at its facility in Canton, Massachusetts, in response to changes in the volume of US government procurements of medical countermeasures. This action will also result in a small reduction in operations at the company’s Rockville, Maryland, drug product facility. Lastly, it will also reduce operations at its Bayview facility in Baltimore, Maryland.   

Going forward, Emergent will focus on its core products business—medical countermeasures and Narcan Nasal Spray (naloxone HCl), an emergency treatment for opioid overdose—and on delivering for its existing customers, including the US and allied governments. Emergent will maintain a level of operations at both its Bayview and Canton facilities to ramp up production in response to new demand. Narcan Nasal Spray was approved on a prescription basis in 2016 and was approved earlier this year (March 2023) for over-the-counter use. The launch of the OTC version is on track for later this summer (summer 2023).  

The reductions will lead to a reduction of approximately 400 employees across all areas of the company. In combination with other cost-reduction initiatives, these actions are expected to result in annualized savings of over $100 million when fully implemented. The costs associated with these actions are estimated to be approximately $19 million to $21 million and are expected to be incurred in the third quarter of 2023. 

As a result of the strategic shift away from Emergent’s services business, the company is eliminating the chief operating officer (COO) role. As such, Adam Havey, Executive Vice President and current COO, will be leaving the company on September 30, 2023. Bill Hartzel, current Senior Vice President and Head of Bioservices, will assume responsibility for manufacturing operations and will join the executive management team reporting to the company’s interim CEO, Haywood Miller. The company reported in June (June 2023) that Robert G. Kramer Sr., the company’s then current CEO and President and current Board member, was retiring, effective in late June (June 2023). The company’s Board of Directors appointed Haywood Miller, then Managing Director at Berkeley Research Group, as interim CEO while it conducts a search to identify a new permanent CEO.   

Source: Emergent BioSolutions