Nanogen, Inc., developer of advanced diagnostic products, announced today that the Company plans to close commercial operations of the array business and reduce staff by approximately 20%. Today’s announcement follows the decision in September to investigate strategic alternatives for the array business.
“Our analysis of alternatives for the array business has not resulted in any financially meaningful opportunities,” said David Ludvigson, Nanogen’s President and COO. “We have determined that the best way to meet our commitment to improving financial performance for our shareholders is to focus on our real-time PCR and point-of-care testing businesses. Eliminating the investment and operating costs for the array product group will result in an operating expense reduction of approximately $15 million. This significant improvement in the bottom line will be achieved with minimal impact to our revenues.”
“The future of our company and our mission to be a leading diagnostics company has not changed with this decision,” stated Howard Birndorf, CEO of Nanogen. “The acquisitions we have made in the past three years have given us a good foothold in both the molecular diagnostics labs and the point-of-care rapid testing market. We believe the long term growth prospects for both of these product areas will drive significant future value for the company.”
The restructuring resulted in a $6.9 million non-cash charge to third quarter financials for inventory and assets related to the array business. An additional cash charge of approximately $2.5 million is anticipated in the fourth quarter related to employee severance costs.