Genetic testing company 23andMe has announced that it will cut 40% of its workforce, around 200 employees, as the beleaguered DNA firm looks to restructure in an attempt to save around $35 million (£27.3 million) annually.

At the same time, the company said that it will discontinue therapies currently under development, and could sell off assets or license its work to other providers to stave some of the expected $12 million (£9.3 million) in one-off costs the layoffs will incur.

The firm said that it also intends to wind-down its ongoing clinical trials as quickly as practical, while looking at strategic alternatives for its clinical programme. Some of those trials involve creating drugs designed to fight cancer cells and difficult to treat tumours, however the company did not commit to ensuring the further development of these drugs elsewhere.

“We are taking these difficult but necessary actions as we restructure 23andMe and focus on the long-term success of our core consumer business and research partnerships,” said co-founder and chief executive Anne Wojcicki.

“We continue to believe in the promise shown by our clinical and preclinical stage pipeline and will continue to pursue strategic opportunities to continue their development.”

This year alone, 23andMe has seen its share price plummet by 70%, with Wojcicki responding to the company’s fall by trying to take it private, resulting in all seven of the firm’s independent directors resigning in September after Wojcicki offered just 40 cents (31 pence) for outstanding shares.

23andMe claims to have the world’s largest proprietary database of health and genetic information, and built its popularity on the back of cheap DIY ancestry testing kits hailed by celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffett, and Snoop Dogg.

However, the company has come under fire for its safeguarding of DNA data, especially following a cyber-attack last December which resulted in hackers gaining access to sensitive details for 6.9 million customers.

International data regulators, including the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), investigated the breach, highlighting the firm’s responsibility as a custodian of highly sensitive personal data, and the loss of trust stemming from the incident.

The episode marked a particularly low point for a company which finds itself teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, and narrowly avoiding being delisted from the stock market, a long fall from its peak value as a $6 billion (£4.6 billion) tech giant.

With the future of 23andMe at best uncertain, questions are being asked about what might happen to the DNA data it currently holds were the firm to go bust.

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Although legal protections exist under regional laws, such as GDPR in the UK, these don’t necessarily mean that the data it holds, which not only relates to its customers but also their families, will remain secure if the firm no longer has the resources to protect it.

Last week, the ICO released a new report on the use of genomics, aimed at companies using DNA data in emerging technologies, which highlighted the regulators concern around the growing use of genomic data in commercial products, and raising questions about the privacy implications that come with it.