On 31 January 2024, Novavax, the company that produces the COVID-19 vaccine, declared a workforce reduction of approximately 12 per cent. The company is cutting jobs because it’s facing money problems and wants to reduce costs due to doubts about its future success.
According to the company’s email, the layoffs will impact about 30 per cent of full-time jobs. As of 21 February, 2023, the vaccine maker had 1,992 full-time employees, as per its latest annual regulatory filing.
Novavax, headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, is an American biotechnology company specialising in the development of vaccines for severe infectious diseases.
In May, the company announced plans to reduce 25 per cent of its workforce shortly after issuing a ‘going concern warning’. Since then, Novavax has been looking to make more cost reductions as it concentrates on improving its COVID vaccine and working on a combined COVID and flu vaccine.
Novavax stated that the choice is in line with its goal to reduce expenses to less than 750 million dollars this year, as previously revealed in its third-quarter earnings call in November.
The complete yearly benefits of the cost savings are anticipated to be seen in 2025, with one-time charges of approximately 4 million to 7 million dollars expected in the first quarter of 2024. Following this announcement, shares of the biotech company increased by nearly 2 per cent to $4.10.