NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Molecular diagnostic company Counsyl has laid off 27 people, or about 6 percent of its more than 400-employee workforce, the firm said today.
In a statement, CEO Ramji Srinivasan said that the firm made the decision in order to "structure the company around advancing our relationships with clinicians and medical providers." The 27 employees who were laid off worked in sales support, marketing, design, and engineering.
Srinivasan added that the firm is hiring for "targeted roles" that support the development of clinical relationships in "commercial sales and clinical marketing."
South San Francisco, California-based Counsyl offers next-generation sequencing-based carrier screening, noninvasive prenatal testing, and inherited cancer screening.
Srinivasan said in the statement that the layoffs are not a result of stagnant test growth and that the firm has "double-digit" growth in its carrier screening product, as well as "rapid uptake" of its NIPT and inherited cancer tests.
In January, Srinivasan told investors at the JP Morgan Healthcare conference in San Francisco that the company had tested more than 500,000 patients. At the time, he also said that Counsyl was "poised for expansion into new markets," such as the somatic cancer market, and that it was developing a liquid biopsy assay.
The company did not confirm whether the recent layoffs were related to a potential expansion into the somatic cancer market.