Exact Sciences Corp. Chairman and CEO Kevin Conroy delivered a message about the company’s scientific and business journey Thursday, describing it as an evolution that may not have happened without federally funded university research.
Conroy, who gave the keynote address during the annual Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Conference at Monona Terrace, said partnerships established with the Mayo Clinic, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Epic Systems have contributed to Exact Sciences’ emergence as a global leader in cancer diagnostics.
The two-day conference, presented by the Wisconsin Technology Council, explored the ripple effects of recent cuts to federal research grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health, among other topics. Many of the grants support university research, which Conroy said is embedded in the cancer screening products being developed by Exact Sciences, a firm he has led since 2009.
It has been 16 years since the once failing and nearly defunct firm was moved from Boston, Massachusetts, to Madison. In that time, Conroy has led the company through the development and commercialization of Cologuard — its non-invasive colorectal cancer screening test which has been used to screen for colorectal cancer (CRC) 19 million times since its launch in 2014 — and other screening products designed to detect cancer at earlier and more treatable stages.
During his tenure, Exact Sciences has grown to more than 6,500 employees worldwide, including about 3,000 in Wisconsin. Its annual revenue has risen to $2.76 billion and Exact has acquired more than 10 companies. The Madison firm continues to develop tests that help prevent cancer, detect it earlier and guide successful treatment.
In his keynote, Conroy explained how federally supported DNA research conducted by UW-Madison professor Jim Dahlberg, now professor emeritus, played a role in the development of Cologuard. Dahlberg’s research led to the co-invention of Cleavase, an enzyme used for detecting gene variations, and was funded by grants from NIH. The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the university’s licensing arm, then secured patents for his research.
The patents eventually formed the basis for the creation of the company Third Wave Technologies, which commercialized and continued to develop Dahlberg’s discoveries, including the technology for detecting HPV.
Conroy said cancer, including colon cancer, is a disease of the DNA.
“It starts with changes to the DNA,” he said. “Something happens to it — an external factor or something you were born with that causes cells to rapidly divide in a way that eventually leads to metastasis and death.
“We are learning, because of the unbelievably powerful DNA detection tools, especially in next generation sequencing, what the root causes of these changes are. It’s still a disease that is very mysterious to us, but we have entered this golden era of both diagnostics and therapeutics.”
Conroy said these tools are also known as targeted therapeutics, “which go in and target the thing that has gone awry in the DNA of the tumor cells.
“The DNA of tumor cells look different in very tiny, slight ways than the DNA of a normal healthy cell, and that’s where early detection is challenging,” Conroy said. “We look for those tiny changes.”
Conroy said human DNA has 3 billion base pairs in its 23 chromosomes, so when researchers look for a point mutation, they are looking for it in a background with 3 billion possibilities. One of the things Third Wave Technologies, the predecessor of Exact Sciences, was known for is detecting those point mutations, and the technology came out of Dahlberg’s lab at UW-Madison.
Dahlberg developed a detection platform, Conroy said, and that general chemistry is involved in many of Exact Sciences’ tests, including both Cologuard and Cancerguard, a test designed to detect multiple cancers, in their earliest stages, from a single blood draw.
Earlier this year, the company launched its Oncodetect test, a new screen designed to detect molecular residual disease (MRD) across multiple solid tumors and provide patients and their health care providers with insight needed to make more informed treatment decisions.
“I just saw Jim (Dahlberg) last week and said, ‘Here we go, Jim, here’s your update,” Conroy said. “That Cleavase enzyme that you discovered … and that you’ve turned into a diagnostic test, we’ve taken it to a whole other level and it is now powering Cologuard Plus — and it enables us to do it at a cost scale that nobody else can, and at a rate of accuracy that nobody else can.
“And it would not have happened except for the funding that he got,” Conroy said. “He was looking at an enzyme. He wasn’t thinking about building Third Wave Technologies. He had curiosity for fundamental research. … He’s built a tool that saves people’s lives. That fundamental research is critically important.”
Finding those tiny changes in DNA can be the difference between discovering colon cancer in its first stage, which has a 98 survival rate and does not require surgery or chemotherapy, and discovering it in stage four, which has an 8% survival rate because at that stage, the cancer is no longer in the colon — it’s everywhere.
“Stage one cancers are eminently treatable,” Conroy said. “They’re also not usually found.”
Teenage dream
Conroy was introduced to conference attendees by Aaron Olver, managing director of University Research Park, a UW-Madison affiliate that builds and leases facilities for technology and science companies. Olver said while established technology companies such as Promega Corp. and Epic have reached “middle age,” Exact Sciences is a mere teenager with the potential to have a similar impact.
“At the University of Research Park, we’ve gotten used to seeing California companies come and buy our local startups,” Olver said. “But today, Exact Sciences is buying California companies, Massachusetts companies, Oxford, England, companies and companies elsewhere.
“As exciting as their economic impact is, the story of their impact on the cancer fight is even more inspiring and meaningful.”
