‘Shining example’: Sale of Fort Worth biotech firm highlights strength of innovation hub
The sale of a Fort Worth biotech startup for $60 million highlights the city as a research center, proponents of a local innovation hub said.
News of Bio-Rad’s August purchase of Exact Diagnostics was announced earlier this week. Jerry Boonyaratanakornkit and Richie Petronis started Exact Diagnostics in 2015. The company manufactures virus samples for labs to test and calibrate equipment.
They used incubator space and the University of North Texas Health Science Center at For Worth and the Tech Fort Worth incubator. Now Exact Diagnostics will headquarter in the Near Southside.
The move is a boon for the Near Southside, said Mike Brennan, president of Near Southside Inc. It also helps push Fort Worth’s image as a hub for biotech research and innovation.
“This is a shining example of what we want to accomplish here,” he said.
The district has the highest concentration of medical workers in DFW. It will also be home to a residency program at Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center for the TCU and UNT Health Science Center medical school. The district is being marketed as a hub for medical and biotech research.
The Star-Telegram reached Petronis by phone in Madrid, Spain, where he was on a sales and marketing trip, but Petronis was unavailable for comment. Exact Diagnostics does business with companies in dozens of countries.
Fort Worth Startup
When they decided to start their company, Petronis and Boonyaratanakornkit turned to turned to the Tech Fort Worth incubator and the Innovation Ecosystem incubator at UNT Health Science Center.
Exact Diagnostics grew rapidly in the Health Science Center labs, said Innovation Ecosystem director Cameron Cushman.
“They grew so fast and kept taking over labs to the point where we didn’t have a whole lot of room for new companies,” Cushman said. “But we’re happy to support them. It’s sort of a good problem to have.”
The Health Science Center has 4,400 square feet of lab space for startups and ultra-high tech equipment.
Staring any company can be expensive, but starting costs for a biotech or medical firm can especially be high, making incubators like the Innovation Ecosystem and Tech Fort Worth crucial.
Not only do those companies need office space, but they also need laboratories fitted with specialized tools, Cushman said. That equipment can be cost prohibitive and researchers may only need to use a devise a few hours a day or for a few months. That’s where the shared-service model of the Innovation Ecosystem comes in handy for a startup.
Fort Worth startups have had several high-dollar success stories in the past.
ZS Pharma, developer of a drug to treat a life-threatening kidney condition, sold to AstraZeneca Plc for $2.7 billion in cash in 2015. The firm was started through Tech Fort Worth and did testing that the Health Science Center.
Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant that owned Fort Worth-based Alcon, bought startup Encore Vision in 2016 for $465 million. Alcon was spun off into a separate publicly traded company in 2019.
A spokeswoman for Bio-Rad did not return a request for comment but, Jim Barry, vice president of quality control, said in a statement that its acquisition of Exact Diagnostics broadened Bio-Rad’s catalog of molecular quality control products in the area of transplant, respiratory, virology, microbiology, sexually transmitted infections and vector-borne diseases.
Bio-Rad Laboratories is a major player the diagnostic products market with $2.3 billion in revenue last year. The company produces software and instruments for cell biology, drug discovery and manufacture, food safety, and science education, among other life sciences.
Near Southside Investment
Last year the company bought the historic Katy Depot building at Vickery and Jones in the Near Southside for $3.2 million. The company plans to invest another $2.5 million in renovations and expects to spend another $1 million in equipment, Brennan said. A special tax district will pay more than $176,000 million for street-side improvements to the property, like sidewalks, lights and driveways.
The more than 23,000-square-foot freight depot gives Exact Diagnostics enough space to spread out while also providing room for other biotech companies.
This story was originally published February 27, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
