Genetic testing company 23andMe announced it will lay off more than 200 employees, or about 40% of its total workforce, according to a press release Monday. The move is part of a restructuring that will see the company stop development of its medical unit that has been working on various potential treatments.
“We are taking these difficult but necessary steps as we rebuild 23andMe and focus on the long-term success of our core consumer business and research relationships,” said Anne Wojcicki, 23andMe CEO and founder, in a press release. “I want to thank our team for their hard work and dedication to our work. We are fully committed to supporting the employees affected by this change.”
The company says it is looking to sell assets related to the medical sector, including work to fight cancer cells and research on monoclonal antibodies.
“We continue to believe in the promise shown by our clinical and preclinical pipeline and will continue to pursue significant opportunities for further development,” said Wojcicki. “We are always grateful to patients, investigators and research staff for their participation in our clinical trials.”
The company said it expects to ultimately save about $35 million a year from the layoffs but expects to incur about $12 million in costs related to eliminating about half of its workforce, including severance, transition fees and other costs.
23andMe went public in 2021 but has struggled to find a sustainable business model, given the fact that most people don’t really need to use its services after one try. After you get your DNA test results, there’s very little reason to go back to the company, even if it offers “subscription” services that Gizmodo reported earlier this year have shady auto-renewal policies, according to complaints filed with the FTC.
Wojcicki announced an attempt to take the company private in April, but Reuters notes that the independent directors resigned in September after not receiving a suitable offer.
23andMe was also hacked back in 2023 where the data of nearly 7 million users was stolen, with half of that leaked onto the dark web. And now that the company is trying to hide itself, there are growing concerns about what can be done with personal data collected from users wherever it is sold. Often, that concern is over something like home addresses, credit card numbers, and social security numbers. But if it’s your genetic information, it certainly feels even more personal.
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