Following a drop of 25% in its diagnostics business between 2022 and 2023, Siemens Healthineers has decided to shutter its Fast Track Diagnostics unit, effective September 2024.

Seven years after acquiring the unit for €75m, the giant--it has 71,000 employees and generated €21.7bn in revenue in last year--says that, following a periodic review of market opportunities and its portfolio contributions, it will throw in the towel.

“Demand for the Fast Track Diagnostics portfolio has fallen significantly since the peak of the covid-19 pandemic,” the company explained in a press statement on 18 March. “Fast Track Diagnostics is a minor player in the molecular diagnostics space and represents a very small part of the overall revenue of the Siemens Healthineers Diagnostics business.”

Around 90 employees, most of them based in Luxembourg, will be affected. “Conversations with local employee representatives are underway, and local labour regulations and guidelines will be followed in accordance with standard company practice,” said the company.

Fast Track Diagnostics is a spin-off from Laboratoires Réunis. On 2 April 2020, as the world went into lockdown, Siemens Healthineers announced that it would be able to supply a PCR test developed in Luxembourg by Fast Track Diagnostics. In the immediate aftermath, Laboratoires Réunis was entrusted with the management of 20,000 tests in Luxembourg. Their sales tripled to more than €100m, leading to legal challenges from other Luxembourg laboratories. This figure rose to €121m in 2021 before falling back to €48m in 2022.

This article in Paperjam. It has been translated and edited for Delano.