Orange County’s hub of diagnostics and testing firms reported a third straight year of declines in local employment.
The sector—a collection of test makers and laboratories for infectious diseases and various cancers, specialized equipment manufacturers, and testing product suppliers—fell nearly 1% to 3,941 local employees, according to this week’s Business Journal annual list that counts 15 companies.
That follows a 5.7% drop on last year’s list and a 2.6% decline in 2022. Prior to that, the industry saw steep gains in employment due to COVID-related work.
Only two companies on this year’s list, which ranks companies by local employee headcount, reported year-over-year increases in local employees.
A notable increase was No. 15 Embic Corp. of Newport Beach, a newcomer to the list this year. It more than doubled its headcount to 12.
The company, which develops tests for Alzheimer’s disease, said recent approval for Alzheimer’s treatments has caused a surge in activity surrounding cognitive health (see story, page 20).
“These opportunities are so concrete and compelling that Embic is staffing up to address them,” Chief Executive Dennis Fortier told the Business Journal.
Beckman Coulter
Retaining the top spot on the list was Quest Diagnostics Inc., with a Business Journal estimate of 1,900 employees at its San Juan Capistrano operations.
The New Jersey-based company (NYSE: DGX), which had 49,000 companywide employees at the end of 2022, calls itself the world’s leading provider of diagnostic information services, generating almost $10 billion in sales in 2022.
No. 2 was Brea’s Beckman Coulter Diagnostics Inc., which reported a 3% decline to 623 employees.
Much of its local workforce has gone remote in recent years, resulting in declines in its stated local base.
The latest decrease is “just a matter of flexing our workforce,” according to Jeff Tarmy, director of global public relations and media at Beckman Coulter.
“We don’t really see it as a significant subtraction.”
Beckman Coulter, which was started by legendary Orange County inventor Arnold Beckman, earlier this month appointed Kevin O’Reilly as its new president.
O’Reilly counts more than three decades of experience in the healthcare industry, having previously served as president of radiation oncology solutions at Varian Medical Systems Inc., which was acquired by Siemens Healthineers in 2021.
“I am very excited to join this team with its legacy of innovation and its deep pipeline of diagnostics advancements designed to play a vital role in improving healthcare outcomes worldwide,” O’Reilly said in a statement.
O’Reilly succeeds Julie Sawyer Montgomery, who is now vice president and group executive of Danaher Corp., parent company of Beckman Coulter. The combined revenue for all 15 companies operating under Danaher, including Beckman Coulter, was $23.9 billion for 2023.
Commercialization
Another increase on the list came from No. 9 Irvine-based Fluxergy LLC, which increased employment 15% to 69.
The company said it’s preparing for the launch of its point-of-care testing system early this year.
“We are determined to be the first diagnostic company to overcome the hurdles in point-of-care testing with our Fluxergy platform,” Chief Executive Tej Patel told the Business Journal.
Fluxergy expects to hire more employees over the next few years to help drive the commercialization of its system and development of its assay menu, according to Patel.
Helio Genomics ranked No. 13 for the second year, remaining unchanged at 35 employees.
The Irvine-based cancer diagnostics firm recently published a study in collaboration with the University of California, Irvine, aiming to improve the detection of early stage cancer with a simple blood test.
Helio expects to submit its HelioLiver test to the Food and Drug Administration this summer.
