NEW YORK (360Dx) – Theranos is laying off 155 employees, or 41 percent of its workforce, in order to focus on commercializing its miniLab testing technology, the firm said on Friday.
After the layoffs, Theranos will have 220 employees tasked with product development and regulatory and commercial efforts. In a statement the firm said the decision to trim its operations was difficult. "[H]owever this move allows Theranos to marshal its resources most efficiently and effectively."
The firm was once valued at about $9 billion before a series of Wall Street Journal articles raised doubts about its Nanotainer technology. The US Food and Drug Administration deemed the Nanotainers unapproved medical devices, and this past July CMS banned Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes from owning or operating a clinical lab for at least two years.
A month earlier, Walgreens ended a partnership with Theranos and shut down Theranos lab-testing services in Walgreens stores.
More recently, the Palo Alto, California-based company offered a first look at its miniLab decentralized testing technology. The platform replaces manual sample processing with robotics and uses a disposable and customized cartridge containing reagents, liquid handling tips, reaction cuvettes, and other consumables to run different tests based on a variety of methodologies, including immunohistochemistry, hematology, and molecular biology.
The buzz generated by the peek into its technology, however, was not enough to prevent 340 layoffs in October as it closed its clinical labs and wellness centers.