Page 71 - Forbes - Asia (October 2019)
P. 71
valuation suggests investors expect his try). “I always knew back then, [with]
approach to make a big score, starting those businesses, that I would be in and
with cancer, then against chronic condi- out,” he says. In 2014, Lefkofsky’s wife,
tions like depression and diabetes. But Liz, was diagnosed with breast cancer.
precision medicine is a nascent field. “I was just perplexed at how little data
Tempus, on its own or with a research had permeated her care,” he says. That DEAL THYSELF
partner, has published fewer than 20 experience ultimately launched Tem-
peer-reviewed manuscripts since its pus. (Liz has “been taking it one day at In 2010, Eric Lefkofsky, Andrew Mason
and Brad Keywell’s Groupon was the
founding four years ago. A competitor, a time,” Lefkofsky says.)
hottest company in America. Reel-
sequencing firm Foundation Medicine, Yet again, Lefkofsky needed data. ing in consumers with bargains and
has published over 400 in 9 years. But some researchers were initially hes- freebies, though, is a long, proud tra-
While the cost of sequencing has itant to share. “They wanted us to basi- dition. Some early examples of now-
dropped, it still runs $1,000 to $5,000 cally send all our samples there for all common tactics:
per analysis, and Tempus loses money our patients” in the future, says John Coupon: In the 1890s, Coca-Cola own-
doing it. Tempus also licenses its library McPherson, deputy director of the Uni- er Asa Candler created tickets good
of anonymized data to drug companies, versity of California, Davis Compre- for a free fountain drink. Between
1894 and 1913, one in nine Americans
insurers and researchers. Lefkofsky hensive Cancer Center. “But we took
took Coke up on it.
won’t reveal revenues, but says it gets a more cautious approach.” They ran
seven-figure fees from seven of the ten a head-to-head comparison involving Loyalty Card: As far back as the
1920s, stamped metal tokens were the
largest cancer drug companies. gastrointestinal cancer between Tem-
frequent-consumer discounts of their
Lefkofsky got the entrepreneur- pus and Foundation Medicine; Tempus day. During the Depression, Procter &
ial bug at the University of Michigan, fared well. Gamble introduced tokens redeem-
where he studied history and made In 2017 Tempus reached a licens- able for laundry soap.
money selling carpets. In 2001, he co- ing agreement with the American Soci- Rewards Program: From the 1930s to
founded InnerWorkings (marketing), ety of Clinical Oncology to extract and the 1980s, the Sperry & Hutchinson
then Echo Global Logistics (transporta- organize data from 1 million patient re- company printed stamps available at
stores and gas stations. The more you
tion) and Mediaocean (advertising soft- cords. Today the company says it al-
spent, the more stamps—redeemable
ware). One of Lefkofsky’s hires, Andrew ready works with 30% of U.S. oncolo- for assorted gewgaws—you received.
Mason, pitched an idea for a business gists; many send patient records and
Flash Sale: Kmart introduced the
focused on “collective action.” Lefkof- biopsies to Tempus for analysis. Tem-
Bluelight Special in 1965—literally a
sky invested $1 million in what became pus hopes to sequence 120,000 genomic colored light bulb that signaled an im-
Groupon. A year after its 2008 found- samples for doctors this year. mediate 15-minute sale on goods in
ing, it booked $14.5 million in revenue; Even with that data, Tempus faces certain areas of the store. The last
in 2011, it generated $1.6 billion. stiff competition. Last year Swiss drug Bluelight went out in 1991 before the
gimmick returned in the 2000s.
Lefkofsky spent a few years dabbling giant Roche spent $4.3 billion acquiring
on other projects, including Uptake Foundation Medicine and big data firm
(predictive analytics for heavy indus- Flatiron Health. Another startup, Con-
certo HealthAI, backed by billionaire
Romesh Wadhwani, has access to many
of the same records as Tempus.
Doctors at UC Davis, McPherson
says, have only sent about 100 sam-
ples to Tempus, considerably fewer than
they’ve sent to Foundation. “I think
they were a little baffled by the amount
of data that came back [from Tempus],”
McPherson says. Clinicians “tend to
take the easier route just to save time.
But there are several clinicians that are
now working fairly closely on the re-
search side with them.”
Lefkofsky remains supremely opti-
mistic. “It certainly feels like my entire
JJ JETEL Inside the lab at Tempus. career has led to this point,” he says. “I
hope this will be my legacy project.” F
OCTOBER 2019 FORBES ASIA | 69
