Giguire learned that adaptive biotechnology is cutting 12% of its workforce, about 100 employees.
A spokesman told geekwire, “we have made a difficult decision to downsize our workforce.”. “Given the current broader market conditions affecting adaptability and the biotechnology industry, we need to ensure that we have enough flexibility to achieve our medium – and long-term goals.”
According to the annual documents of the securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company had 858 full-time employees at the end of 2021.
Adaptive has developed techniques to assess immune responses that have developed rapidly during pandemics. The company increased the number of coronavirus diseases in 2019 and established a new partnership with vaccine companies to help analyze and develop covid-19 vaccine. The rapid detection and sale of advor 2019 coronavirus disease also makes it adapt to the “minimal residual disease” of cancer cells, and has established other biopharmaceutical partnerships.
Layoffs also occurred less than six months after the company’s new headquarters in Seattle were completed.
The company’s share price fell by about 80% from its peak in January 2021.
As the capital flow of biotechnology companies dried up, the biotechnology IPO market cooled down at the end of 2021, and the layoffs of advice also came. A key Biotechnology Index Fund, SPDR Standard & Poor’s biotechnology ETF (Xbi), is down about 50% from February 2021.
Other biotech companies are also cutting jobs, including Roche’s Genentech and Vancouver, B.C., and Seattle area zymeworks, which are cutting 25% of their jobs.
The spokesman said adaptive was being restructured to focus on two key business areas, “minimal residual disease (MRD) and immunomedicine”. “As part of this process, we are de focusing on projects and plans that no longer meet the objectives of these two business areas,” she added.
The company’s revenue in fiscal year 2021 was $154.3 million, rising to 57% from 2020 according to its recent financial report. The net loss was $207.3 million, up from $146.2 million in 2020.
Revenue in the fourth quarter was $37.9 million, a year-on-year increase of 26%. The net loss in the previous quarter was $61.4 million, up from $44.6 million in the same period last year. At the end of last year, the company had $570.2 million in cash, cash equivalents and securities.
CEO Chad robins and his brother, chief scientific officer Harlan robins, founded the company in 2009 and listed the company in 2019. The company was spun off from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, where Chad served as director of computational biology.
Update: on Tuesday afternoon, adaptive released the message Chad robins sent to employees earlier in the day. “While coping with the volatile market environment, ensuring that we have the funds and resources to drive our growth requires difficult choices,” Robbins said. After the comprehensive review, “it is clear that we must reduce operating expenses, eliminate the priority of some projects and plans, and make major adjustments to the expenditure of capital projects.”
Chad Cohen, adaptive’s long-term chief financial officer, resigned in January. The spokesman said that the company will issue an announcement on the replacement on Wednesday morning, “this is an important part of our restructuring”.
The spokesman added: “we are sorry to have parted ways with our team members, but we believe these changes will lay the foundation for our success and development.”. “Our team is doing everything possible to support their transformation, including a comprehensive exit plan. The Seattle biotechnology market is very close, and our executives and remaining employees will make every effort to help our outgoing colleagues build a network.”