Ongoing economic forces continued to mount pressure culminating in late-summer layoff announcements across diagnostics companies both large and small. Bryan Brokmeier, senior equity analyst for life science tools and diagnostics at Maxim Group, tells DTET that these layoffs are driven mostly by industrywide forces, as opposed to company-specific situations. Many companies are turning to restructuring to address macroeconomic concerns, including continued slower global economic growth and the ripple effects of sequestration’s impact, Brokmeier says. Additionally, lagging molecular reimbursement is hitting company revenues. As a result, companies are focused on cutting costs and “driving margin expansion.” The latest announcements follow combined head count reductions of close to 1,000 employees made earlier in the year by Affymetrix, Agilent, Bruker Biosciences, and others. Sequenom (San Diego) is reducing its workforce by 75 employees as part of a reorganization, according to an August regulatory filing. The move will cut compensation-related and future operating expenses by $10 million on an annualized basis, although it will record $1.2 million in severance-related expenses during the third quarter. For the quarter ending June 30, the company reported a 91 percent increase in revenues ($34.9 million versus $18.3 million a year ago), which fell way below analyst estimates of […]