Caris Life Sciences Expanding Footprint in Dallas-Fort Worth Area, Creating 500 New Jobs
Caris Life Sciences, based in Irving, Texas, announced plans to develop the Caris Life Sciences Corporate Park in the city. The new site will allow for about 115,000 square feet of new R&D laboratory and office space. It is expected to create more than 500 new jobs.
Caris focuses on precision medicine. Its ADAPT Biotargeting System identifies novel molecular targets to be used for drug development and advanced diagnostics. Its Caris Molecular Intelligence provides oncologists with clinically actionable treatment options.
Part of the new corporate park will be used to expand the company’s blood-based diagnostic tests in addition to blood-based molecular profiling and increasing research and development capacity.
The company has 135,000-square-foot complex in Phoenix, Arizona, a 7,000-square-foot operation, Caris Pharmatech, in Denver, Colorado, and international offices in Basel, Switzerland. This gives the company a total footprint of more than 300,000 square feet. The new corporate park will increase the total footprint by more than 217%.
The number of employees for the company has more than doubled in the last year. It currently employs almost 700 staffers. The 500 new positions in Irving will add to the company’s growing list of medical and scientific affairs, pathologists, researchers, oncologists, geneticists and biostatisticians.
“Caris is working to reinvent cancer care,” stated David D. Halbert, chairman and chief executive officer of Caris Life Sciences. “We have made investments in science, expertise, infrastructure and proprietary technologies that cannot be rivaled, and we are combining these in unique ways to create comprehensive offerings for clinicians and researchers that others cannot.”
Development has already begun with the first of three phases planned to be completed in early 2020. The first phase will focus on laboratories for its blood-based diagnostics, R&D, and more corporate office space. The second and third phase will bring in more laboratories for its comprehensive tumor profiling offerings.
In late-July, the company announced that the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) had become the 28th member of the company’s Precision Oncology Alliance (POA). The Alliance is a collaborative network of cancer centers developing standards of care and best practices for applying molecular profiling to precision cancer care. The Alliance includes seven National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers.
POA profiles cancer patients using Caris Molecular Intelligence, establish guidelines to integrate molecular testing into oncology treatment, are involved in research studies, and collaborate in virtual molecular tumor boards. Members include MedStar Health, West Cancer Center, the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, Fox Chase Center Center, The John Wayne Cancer Institute and others.
Regarding the new site, Halbert added, “Our new facilities in Irving, Texas will allow us to add to our team of experts, and enhance our ability to deliver more insights to physicians and drug developers that will improve and save lives. We look forward to continuing to expand our portfolio of proprietary offerings, adding new blood-based diagnostics and blood-based molecular profiling, utilizing the company’s ADAPT Biotargeting technology, and other market-leading offerings, including Caris Molecular Intelligence, Next Generation Profiling, and whole transcriptome sequencing.”