Dive Brief:
- Boston Scientific has filed to lay off 120 people at the Houston site it acquired in 2021 through its $925 million takeover of Preventice Solutions.
- Affected employees were offered the chance to move to a Boston Scientific facility in Minnesota 10 months ago, according to the Houston Chronicle, but layoffs of those who declined the offer will start in April.
- The Boston Scientific action is the latest in a series of layoffs to hit the medtech sector, with Abbott, Baxter, Philips, Quest Diagnostics, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Verily among the firms to disclose cuts this year.
Dive Insight:
Boston Scientific completed the acquisition of Preventice in March 2021, adding ambulatory cardiac monitors, cardiac event monitors and mobile cardiac telemetry to its portfolio. The business has lived up to expectations, leading Boston Scientific to make a $216 million sales-based milestone payment in the second quarter of 2022, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Yet, around the same time, the company disclosed plans to lay off staff.
In April 2022, Boston Scientific told staff at the Houston facility it acquired in the takeover of Preventice that it planned to move some work to a site in Minnesota. Affected employees were invited to apply for jobs in Minnesota and offered assistance with relocation.
Now, Boston Scientific has sent a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) to the Texas Workforce Commission. The WARN notice states 120 jobs could be eliminated at the company’s Houston site starting April 23.
”This is due to the Company’s decision to transfer some work to the Arden Hills, MN facility within the Company’s network post-acquisition. This will result in employment losses occurring at the Facility,” Boston Scientific Human Resources Manager Carlos Bailey said in a Feb. 22 letter to the commission.
A spokesperson for Boston Scientific explained the decision to the Houston Chronicle, describing the action as a relocation rather than a reduction in staff. “Transferring work among our facilities helps us align our products, capabilities, technologies and resources to support our business strategies.”
Elsewhere in medtech, companies have been firing, not relocating, their employees as they all adapt to the macroeconomic environment and diagnostics businesses respond to falling demand for COVID-19 tests.
