Tempus, a Chicago precision medicine startup best known for its genomic sequencing technology that helps create better and more personalized treatment plans for cancer patients, is among the many high-tech businesses now pivoting its mission to combat the raging Covid-19 pandemic.
The startup announced in May that it was launching diagnostic Covid-19 testing at its lab in Chicago, and last month received Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA for its test. Tempus is now performing upwards of 12,000 coronavirus tests per day.
And just this week, the startup announced it's collaborating with the Yale School of Public Health to accelerate the development of the university's at-home, saliva-based Covid-19 diagnostic test, called SalivaDirectTM. Tempus also works with CVS Health in a Covid testing partnership.
The coronavirus marks Tempus' first foray into infectious diseases, Tempus Chief Scientific Officer Joel Dudley said in an interview.
"We went from not being in Covid at all to spinning up a Covid testing business in around 60 days," he said.
Tempus, which was founded in 2015 by Groupon co-founder Eric Lefkofsky, has become one of Chicago's fastest-growing startups. Now at more than 1,600 employees, the startup has raised $600 million in venture capital at a $5 billion valuation, making it Chicago's most valuable tech startup. Tempus uses machine learning and genomic sequencing to better understand a patient’s tumor, and it provides physicians with data to personalize patient treatment.
During its last fundraise, a $100 million round in March, the company said it planned to expand its technology to areas beyond cancer, starting with diabetes, depression and cardiology.
But with the coronavirus wrecking havoc on American life, Tempus saw an opportunity to bring its precision medicine technology and data initiative to help better understand the virus and how to treat it. Like with cancer, the company's goal is to arm physicians and patients with data to determine what therapeutics are most likely to work against Covid-19 and create a treatment plan that's personalized to each patient. In order to do that, Tempus plans to aggregate the genomic data from up to 50,000 Covid patients in partnership with dozens of academic medical centers.
Covid is just the beginning of Tempus' infectious disease work, Dudley said, which could be used to treat the flu and other similar conditions.
"This is a commitment to bringing precision medicine to infectious disease," Dudley said. "It's a sustained investment and sustained effort and focus for Tempus going forward."
