NEW YORK – Pacific Biosciences said Wednesday that it is cutting its workforce and other expenses to lower its annualized operating costs by $45 million to $50 million this year "in response to ongoing market uncertainty."
"We believe we are on pace to achieve the financial goals we set earlier this year," PacBio President and CEO Christian Henry said in a statement. "However, given the persistent uncertainty surrounding academic and NIH funding, along with the introduction of new tariffs, we are taking strategic steps to reduce spending and reinforce our plan to reach positive cash flow by the end of 2027."
The company also reported a 5 percent year-over-year drop in preliminary first quarter revenues but reaffirmed its prior 2025 revenue guidance.
According to a spokesperson, PacBio is eliminating approximately 80 current positions, effective immediately, as well as 40 open or planned positions across the organization.
"We are also restructuring our commercial organization to streamline management and improve sales force efficiency, while maintaining our commitment to serving customers across all segments and product lines," Henry said.
Following the cost cuts, PacBio said it will "focus on its highest-impact long-read platform development initiatives."
For the quarter ended March 31, the company reported $36.9 million in preliminary revenues, down from $38.8 million in Q1 2024.
Instrument revenue was down 43 percent to $10.8 million from $19.0 million. Consumable revenue rose 26 percent to $20.1 million from $16.0 million, reaching a record high, the firm said. Service and other revenue grew almost 60 percent to $6.0 million from $3.8 million.
PacBio placed 12 Revio sequencers in Q1, down from 28 in the prior-year quarter, as well as 28 new Vega sequencers.
Preliminary revenues "met our expectations despite impacts from ongoing uncertainty in NIH funding in the United States and broader economic headwinds affecting the industry," the firm stated.
Orders for the new Vega sequencer picked up in Q1 compared to Q4, both from new and existing customers, and adoption of the new system "is progressing well," Henry said.
However, the funding and general macroeconomic environment "is having an impact on our ability to place more instruments, particularly Revio systems at academic customers," he said.
Nevertheless, annualized consumables pull-through for the Revio from existing customers reached approximately $236,000, in line with the firm's expectations of a low-to-mid $200,000s range.
PacBio ended the quarter with $343.1 million in cash, cash equivalents, and investments.
Going forward, PacBio said it will focus on speeding up the adoption of HiFi sequencing, investing in initiatives that improve gross margin, and innovating its long-read sequencing portfolio to enhance platform scalability and cost reduction.
The company reiterated its previous full-year 2025 revenue guidance of $155 million to $170 million. It expects that new Vega placements will offset a decline in Revio shipments.
The firm plans to provide further details during its first quarter earnings call on May 8.
In morning trading on the Nasdaq, PacBio's stock was up 16 percent at $1.39.