Google health tech spinout Verily lays off staff amid exec departures

Verily, spun out of Google parent Alphabet, is laying off about 15% of its employees, shaking up the executive leadership and narrowing its focus, the company confirmed to Endpoints News.

Stephen Gillett

Co-founder Jessica Mega and health platforms president Vivian Lee have left the company, according to LinkedIn updates to their profiles, as first reported by STAT News. Jordi Parramon, president of the company’s devices unit, is also leaving, according to an internal memo from CEO Stephen Gillett.

The health tech company formed in 2015 out of Google X and attracted big names, including FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, who led clinical policy and strategy between his stints as leader of the US regulator. Former principal deputy FDA leader Amy Abernethy also joined last summer. She became medical chief and president of product development as part of this week’s C-suite makeover.

Amy Abernethy

Verily is still searching for a new CFO, according to the memo. Former finance chief Deepak Ahuja left last fall, the company announced at the time of a $1 billion investment led by Alphabet. The company seeks a chief scientific officer as well.

The company will end work on remote patient monitoring for heart failure and microneedles for drug delivery, per the memo. The focus will narrow in on “closing the gap between research and care, and becoming the data and evidence backbone for precision health.”

Sosei Heptares, Otsuka, Mayo Clinic and L’Oréal are some of the company’s collaborators. Verily also bought out SignalPath in recent years to boost its clinical trial work.

The layoffs happen as the broader tech and biopharma industries go through sweeping organizational changes in the current market. Multiple Big Tech giants and more than 100 biotechs have enacted layoffs in the past year.

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