Moderna to cut 10% of staff to offset slowing Covid business

[CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS] Moderna is cutting about 10 per cent of its workforce, part of an effort by the struggling biotech company to reduce spending as sales of its Covid vaccine decline.

In a note to employees, chief executive officer Stéphane Bancel said the company was “aligning our cost structure to the realities of our business.”

The layoffs will affect hundreds of employees globally, though Bancel did not disclose in which areas of the business. Moderna expects to have fewer than 5,000 employees by the end of the year, he said.

It had about 5,800 full-time employees at the end of last year, according to a company filing.

Moderna is cutting costs as revenue from its Covid vaccine shrinks and the company faces new challenges from the leadership of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine critic.

Under Kennedy, US health officials have rolled back long-standing recommendations regarding Covid shots for children and pregnant women, approved Moderna’s updated Covid shot for a narrower group of people and terminated the company’s contract to develop bird flu vaccines.

Meanwhile Moderna’s second product, a vaccine for RSV, has not gained traction.

With sales falling short of investors’ expectations, Moderna last year pushed back its target to break even by two years, to 2028 from 2026. The company has said it plans to reduce annual operating expenses by about US$1.5 billion by 2027.

Moderna is doing that by renegotiating supplier agreements, reducing manufacturing costs and lowering spending on research and development. BLOOMBERG