Dive Brief:
- Tempus AI said Monday it has agreed to buy Personalis for $1.5 billion.
- Fremont, California-based Personalis makes a molecular residual disease test for cancer. Tempus expects the acquisition will allow it to better support patients around cancer diagnostics, treatment selection, recurrence and monitoring.
- The planned purchase follows recent interest in blood-based cancer tests across the medtech industry. Abbott in March closed its $21 billion purchase of Exact Sciences, Guardant’s colon cancer blood test received UnitedHealth coverage, and Freenome recently shared results of a pivotal study of its blood-based screening for colorectal cancer.
Dive Insight:
Tempus plans to buy Personalis’ outstanding shares at $16.25 per share, a roughly 6% premium to the company’s Friday closing price, with the option to pay for up to half of the consideration in cash.
The companies expect the purchase to close in late 2026 or early 2027, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.
Tempus’ planned acquisition follows a partnership with Personalis, dating back to 2023. At the time, Tempus agreed to co-commercialize Personalis’ molecular residual disease, or MRD, test. Tempus had considered buying Personalis at the time, but instead stuck with the commercial agreement, since Personalis needed several years of investment to move forward its MRD test, Tempus CEO Eric Lefkofsky told investors in a Monday morning call.
Since then, Personalis has started to garner broad insurance coverage for its test. Personalis has received Medicare coverage in three indications and additional coverage is expected.
Tempus also expects Personalis’ test to complement its own MRD offerings. Personalis’ test is a tumor-informed MRD test, which uses information from a patient’s tumor sample to screen for residual disease, while Tempus offers a tumor-naive MRD test.
Over the last several quarters, the market has “shifted pretty dramatically” to tumor-informed assays in terms of volume, Lefkofsky said, adding that the company still plans to invest in its tumor naive tests.
Personalis reported preliminary second-quarter revenue of $22.4 million. The company delivered 10,384 tests in the quarter, a 33% increase from the previous quarter.
Meanwhile, Tempus sold about 5,500 of Personalis’ tests in the first quarter and about 9,000 in the second quarter, Lefkofsky said.
