Theranos starts 2017 by firing 40 percent of its staff

Theranos has announced its latest round of job cuts, firing 155 employees to leave a “core team” of just 220. The news was first reported by Bloomberg, and later confirmed by the startup. It says the move was “difficult,” but that it allows the company to focus on the commercialization of a new tabletop blood-testing product named the miniLab.

This bluster aside, the fall of Theranos has been swift after a series of reports in 2015 revealed that its proprietary technology was unreliable. Independent studies later confirmed this, and in July last year Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes was banned from operating labsin the US for two years. As of August 1st 2016, Theranos employed 790 individuals, but last October fired 340 staff members and closed all of its clinical labs.

It remains to be seen what there is left of Theranos to be cut, as the company — previously valued at $9 billion — hangs on to funding raised in better times. In its latest press release, Theranos described the recent round of firings as “restructuring” that followed “a period of significant change.” A little more change, and Theranos will likely be gone forever.