Gen-Probe Incorporated is a name that many of you may now know much about unless you spend a lot of time thinking about how it is that you can make medical screenings happen. After all, if you do not think about it much then you would have no reason. So before we talk about job cuts to come lets begin by talking about the company and what they do. Here is a look at how the company has chosen to describe itself, “Gen-Probe Incorporated is now part of Hologic Incorporated. Hologic and Gen-Probe have joined forces to create Hologic’s diagnostics business. This business is dedicated to saving lives through early detection, improved diagnosis and less invasive treatment. Hologic Gen-Probe is a global leader in the development, manufacture and marketing of rapid, accurate and cost-effective molecular diagnostic products and services that are used primarily to diagnose human diseases, screen donated human blood, and ensure transplant compatibility.”

Sadly the company is getting ready to cut back on about 75 jobs. The company has not, for the current moment saying much about why the company is making the layoffs. What we do know is that the company will be making a mass layoff action under the current federal guidelines.  For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action here is a look at how the federal government defines the term, “The Mass Layoff Statistics (MLS) program collects reports on mass layoff actions that result in workers being separated from their jobs. Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.”

Instead of addressing the issue of the layoffs the company decided, in a recent release,  instead of dealing with the layoffs to talk about a new distribution agreement that is set to help the company expand its sales. Here is an excerpt from that release, “Gen-Probe Incorporated (NASDAQ: GPRO) and Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: LIFE) today announced they have signed a distribution agreement for SeCore^® HLA Sequence-Based Typing (SBT) kits for use with Life Technologies’ 3500 Dx Genetic Analyzer.  Under the terms of the agreement, Gen-Probe’s LIFECODES unit will have co-exclusive rights to sell SeCore SBT products into the transplant market alongside Life Technologies’ dedicated HLA sales force in the United States.  LIFECODES will initiate sales of the SeCore HLA SBT line this month.  Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.”

As you can imagine this is not the only company in the medical field to cut back on costs. For those of you who missed out here is a look at earlier cuts to Express Scripts, “The company is, as you may have guesses, undergoing a lot of layoffs. The company is getting ready to cut back on about 283 of its employees in order to put itself to fiscal rights. The company may or may not be making a mass layoff action happen, depending on how the layoffs are distributed.”