Genomics company Illumina plans to permanently lay off 111 employees at its San Diego headquarters, effective March 12, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice filed with California.
Some of the positions being eliminated are senior managers, supervisors, engineers, scientists and analysts, according to the Jan. 11 notice. The cuts include the director of medical affairs, senior director of scientific research and the vice presidents of scientific research and the R&D program management office.
“As always, we are guided by the needs of our customers around the world. Illumina continues to invest in critical areas of innovation that have high customer demand, while also ensuring our structure, talent, and operating costs are aligned with our strategy,” Illumina spokesperson David McAlpine said in an emailed statement.
The DNA-sequencing market leader, which appointed Jacob Thaysen as its new CEO in September, lost $754 million in the third quarter. It recorded a full-year loss of $4.4 billion in 2022.
The company is in the process of unwinding its $8 billion acquisition of Grail, maker of a multi-cancer early detection test. It has fought a costly battle to retain Grail, which it bought in August 2021 without antitrust approval and has been ordered by regulators to divest.
Activist investor Carl Icahn, who pushed for the divestiture of Grail, launched a proxy fight that resulted in the ouster last year of Illumina’s board chair and resignation of CEO Francis deSouza.
Illumina is set to report its fourth-quarter and full-year 2023 results on Thursday afternoon.
