By Neil Johnson, Big Radio and WCLO News
A former SHINE Technologies employee confirms SHINE is laying off 59 people.
SHINE apparently announced the decision this morning, and while company executives haven’t confirmed the news or given details, an employee said SHINE sent a note today announcing the mass layoff, and saying the company apparently has been facing financial headwinds.
The layoffs, apparently, are most heavily focused on staff who work in the SHINE’s medical molybdenum 99 division, which is the segment of the company SHINE had initially pinned its hopes on for developing a state-of-the-art nuclear accelerator facility on Janesville’s south side.
Company officials said on Tuesday that SHINE, once heavily subsidized with government funding aimed at boosting U.S. domestic production of nuclear medicines, now faces a toughening private fundraising landscape, in part because of federal interest rate hikes.
SHINE CEO Greg Piefer says SHINE seeks to pivot toward production and sale of cancer therapy drugs such as Lutetium-177, one drug it’s already making. SHINE plans over the short haul to step back from its moly-99 division, although Piefer said the company plans to complete construction and launch operations of its production facility — the 50,000-square-foot, so-called “Chrysalis.”
SHINE has been working the last decade toward launch in 2024 of the Janesville production facility, SHINE’s main production facility for moly-99, and a range of cancer fighting drugs. Piefer said SHINE intends to finish installing and ramping up its set of nuclear particle accelerators in Janesville. Piefer said SHINE intends to continue to pursue moly-99 production in Janesville, although he said progress on that front has now slowed.
SHINE last week and this week has been trumpeting groundbreaking research in its nascent clean energy fusion division, but the company hasn’t publicly announced its layoff of staff or shared the reasons why. The layoffs account for about 20 percent of the company’s local workforce.
SHINE apparently shared a note with city of Janesville officials explaining the layoffs. Multiple city officials were not immediately available for comment. Jimsi Kuborn, the city of Janesville’s, economic development director, says the layoffs will not have an impact on a multi-million dollar tax incentive deal the city has with SHINE for the development of a nuclear medicine production facility.
Tune into Big Radio and WCLO Radio News for a broadcast of this developing story.
