Genetic testing firm 23andMe cuts 40% of its workforce amid financial struggles
The genetic testing firm 23andMe said on Monday it would cut about 40%, or 200 employees, from its workforce and discontinue further development of all its therapies as part of a restructuring program.
“We are taking these difficult but necessary actions as we restructure 23andMe and focus on the long-term success of our core consumer business and research partnerships,” said the company’s CEO, Anne Wojcicki.
The company said it was evaluating strategic alternatives, including licensing agreements and asset sales, for its therapies in development.
The company has been left with few options as its value has plummeted in the aftermath of a massive data breach. The DNA testing company is being investigated by British and Canadian authorities over the 2023 breach that exposed 6.9 million users’ data, including ancestry information and other personal details. The hackers first revealed that they accessed the data in October 2023, when they attempted to sell the purported data of 1 million users of Jewish Ashkenazi descent and 100,000 users of Chinese descent on a popular hacking forum.
23andMe users in the US have since filed a class action lawsuit against the company, alleging the company failed to sufficiently notify users of Chinese and Jewish descent that their information was exposed. While the company insisted the information accessed could not be “used for any harm”, lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the case said the ethnicity-specific groups could amount to a “hit list”.
