Testmaker Cepheid plans to eliminate 626 staff positions at its Sunnyvale, California headquarters by September 27, according to a regulatory filing.
The bulk of the layoffs impact manufacturing associates and staff in material handling, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) report filed with the state of California on July 31. The cuts also impact some senior management roles and engineering positions.
The layoffs impact approximately 13% of the molecular diagnostics company’s 4,800 employees.
Part of the Danaher Corporation, Cepheid develops and manufactures molecular systems and tests. The company developed the GeneXpert system, a modular and scalable system that provides all the lab processes needed for diagnostics through a small cartridge. Lab technicians can feed the cartridge into a machine to read the results.
Last month, the FDA greenlit Cepheid’s first point-of-care diagnostic test for hepatitis C, capable of using only a fingerstick blood sample, in a bid to quickly connect patients with antiviral drugs.
The company received an FDA de novo clearance and a laboratory waiver for its Xpert HCV diagnostic, which runs on its GeneXpert Xpress tabletop PCR system—allowing it to be used not only in doctor’s offices, emergency rooms and urgent care clinics but also at substance use disorder treatment centers, syringe programs and correctional facilities.
Cepheid also plans to lay off 11 employees at its East Bay Logistic Center in Fremont.
Cepheid will be offering all impacted associates on-site outplacement services provided by a third-party vendor, free of charge, the company said in the WARN report.