Tempus inks partnership with VA to scale up precision medicine for veterans with cancer

Tech company Tempus has notched a partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide patients with cancer access to cutting-edge genetic testing to improve treatment.

The VA is the largest healthcare system in the U.S., comprising over 1,000 healthcare facilities including 171 VA medical centers. It's Tempus' largest health system partnership to date.  

There are 9 million veterans served by the VA health system. It's estimated there are approximately 40,000 new cancer cases in veterans reported annually. And as the veteran population continues to age, this number will continue to rise.
 
Through a multiyear agreement, the VA's National Precision Oncology Program will have access to Tempus’ portfolio of next-generation sequencing offerings to support physicians in delivering personalized treatment approaches for their patients with cancer. 
 

The VA's precision oncology program is leveraging Tempus’ broad range of comprehensive molecular profiling capabilities in an effort to improve patient outcomes with precision medicine.

“Our AI-enabled tests combine high-quality and comprehensive genomic data with clinical data for each patient being sequenced, which allows physicians to make truly personalized decisions as they seek the optimal therapy for their patients," said Tempus founder and CEO Eric Lefkofsky, who previously co-founded e-commerce company Groupon in 2008.

Founded in 2015, the company says it’s built the world’s largest library of clinical and molecular data along with an operating system to make those data accessible and useful. The company developed an AI-enabled precision medicine software based on its collection and analysis of clinical and molecular data and enables physicians to make near real-time, data-driven decisions to deliver personalized patient care.

"Tempus offers the most comprehensive molecular profiling available to physicians. Our standard panel (xT), analyzes 648 somatic genes, the patients’ germline state, along with their full transcriptome (RNA). As a result, and as we published previously in Nature Biotech, our test is able to identify at least one clinical option—including actionable therapies or clinical trials—in well over 90% of patients, which is much higher than others," Lefkofsky told Fierce Healthcare in an exclusive interview. 

He added, "We're excited to be partnering with the VA to bring the benefits of our comprehensive profiling to our nation's veterans, who deserve the very best care we can offer. "

As part of the collaboration, providers across the VA’s 171 medical centers can leverage Tempus’ next-generation sequencing tests, including its solid tumor/normal assay, liquid biopsy and whole exome assay. Tempus’ tumor/normal match DNA sequencing provides accurate insight through true somatic identification, with 27.7% fewer false positives than tumor-only analysis, according to the company.

"In addition, we're also able to automatically convert to a blood-based liquid biopsy panel in the event that a patient’s tissue is unable to be sequenced to ensure that the clinician is able to get a result as quickly and in as many cases as possible," Lefkofsky said.

 
Since the human genome was sequenced roughly 20 years ago, the number of targeted therapeutics that are helping cancer patients has grown dramatically, according to Lefkofsky.

"We expect this trend to continue. As a result, our hope is that world-class institutions like the VA will continue to expand their precision medicine programs in an effort to ensure that every patient is treated in a personalized manner. Given that Tempus is a leader in bringing technology to diagnostics, we are well situated to support the VA and their efforts in the future," he said.

Lefkofsky, a serial entrepreneur, had built a career as one of the most successful tech founders in Chicago when his wife's cancer diagnosis in 2014 changed the course of his career. 

He was motivated to launch Tempus a year later after he observed the healthcare system's flawed approach to data as part of his wife's cancer journey.

"I was just perplexed at how little data and technology were a part of her care," he told Fierce Healthcare back in February. "I became fixated on why technology and data hadn't permeated healthcare the way it permeated other industries."

While the company initially focused on cancer, it has now expanded to focus on other areas of healthcare, including infectious diseases, depression and cardiology. The company also has added a collection of predictive algorithm laboratory-developed tests.

The company has scaled rapidly, and, now, 40% of oncologists in the U.S. are connected to Tempus through sequencing, clinical trial matching and research-enabled partnerships, along with 50% of all academic medical centers.

The company now has more than 5 million de-identified research records to power scientific discovery to improve patient outcomes, and more than 7,500 patients have been identified for potential clinical trial matching.

In December 2020, Tempus said it was valued at $8.1 billion after raising $200 million in equity financing and $250 million in convertible debt. 

The company has raised around $1.05 billion to date.