J&J takes axe to Netherlands vaccines R&D unit

The Infectious Diseases & Vaccines (ID&V) unit will be scrapped, affecting up to 625 jobs, but manufacturing operations at the Leiden site will continue, says J&J.

Within its Janssen Pharmaceutical division, J&J is closing most of its infectious diseases and vaccine development unit at the Leiden site, located about 30km southwest of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

A spokesperson from the firm confirmed the exit is inline with restructuring plans highlighted in its second quarter results. However, Janssen said it remains committed to the marketed HIV products that came out of Leiden and will continue development of a late-stage ExPEC vaccine program for prevention of invasive E. coli bacterial infections.

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Janssen hires around 2,500 staff at the Leiden site. “Approximately 25% of the employees in Leiden are part of the ID&V organization,” we were told, and thus 625 jobs are at risk.

“Any decisions are contingent upon meeting all applicable regulatory and other requirements, including consultation with works councils as and where applicable. While doing so, Janssen will support its employees through the changes.”

Furthermore, Leiden will remain “an important manufacturing site for Johnson & Johnson,” the spokesperson said.

The manufacturing site, built in response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, is equipped with single-use bioreactors to a scale of 1,000 L. It was initially used to manufacture the firm’s investigational mosaic HIV-1 preventive vaccine when it opened its doors in 2018.

The site also supported manufacture of J&J’s COVID-19 jab, though it is believed production of the vaccine, based on J&J’s AdVac viral vector and PER.C6 cell line technologies, began winding down in early 2022 in favor of an experimental “but potentially more profitable vaccine to protect against an unrelated virus.”