Vaccine maker Novavax to let go of 25% of its workforce as part of restructure plan

Just days after the World Health Organisation (W.H.O.) declared Covid is no longer a “global health emergency”, US vaccine maker Novavax on Tuesday announced that it will let go of 25 percent of its employees as part of a new restructuring plan. 

The exact number of employees being laid off was unclear. But media reports said that Novavax had around 2,000 employees by the end of 2022. As part of the restructuring plan, the pharma company will also consolidate its facilities and infrastructure.

“Reducing our workforce has been a difficult decision, but we believe it was necessary to better align our infrastructure and scale to the endemic COVID opportunity,” said John C Jacobs, President and Chief Executive Officer, Novavax in a statement. 

The decision to cut jobs comes at a time when global vaccine makers, including Pfizer and Moderna, are seeing a fall in demand for Covid-19 vaccines. In order to reorient its Covid-19 vaccines, Novavax is looking to combine its Covid shot with a preventive vaccine for influenza.

The fall in Covid-19 vaccine sales impacted Novavax in the first three months of 2023. The company’s total revenue stood at $81 million for the first quarter of 2023. For the same period in 2022, this figure stood at $704 million. 

Meanwhile, job cuts at the pharma company helped its shares rise by nearly 50 percent and end on a two-year high on Tuesday. The stock had fallen about 86 percent over the past year amid concerns about whether the company would be able to stay in business.

Compared to Moderna and Pfizer, Novavax was a latecomer in the vaccine race. But the Covid-19 vaccine helped the company record better numbers in 2022. 

Novavax’s total revenue for 2022 stood at $1.9 billion, 73 percent higher compared to 2021. Nuvaxovid, its flagship Covid-19 vaccine helped the company improve its sales numbers last year. 

But with the WHO declaring Covid-19 as no longer a threat to the global health system, the company is looking to revamp its inventory for the post-Covid era.