Seattle-Based Adaptive Acquires Bay Area firm to Advance Science of Sequencing.

We recently wrote about the Fred Hutch spinoff Adaptive Biotechnologies and their unique approach to the immunotherapy space. Utilizing pioneering advances in sequencing technology, Adaptive improves the delivery of therapies to patients and gives researchers better tools for drug development. Now the company is taking the next step by acquiring Sequenta, a San Francisco-based startup that uses sequencing to focus on diagnostics. The acquisition will help the company move towards more widespread distribution of their products, which are in use by hundreds of academic customers but have not yet undergone the kind of long-term clinical trials needed for wider distribution. Adaptive hopes to tap into the explosion of interest among biotech and pharmaceutical companies in the development of therapies that take advantage of the immune system to treat disease, a trend we discussed at length in our November cover story.

Here’s the press release from Adaptive:

SEATTLE – Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation, a pioneer in leveraging next generation sequencing to profile T-cell and B-cell receptors, today announced the acquisition of Sequenta, Inc. which is expected to expedite and expand the use of novel immunosequencing products for researchers and clinicians to diagnose, treat, and monitor patients with cancer, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases.

Immunosequencing, which uses next generation sequencing tools to quantitatively characterize the adaptive immune system, represents a multi-billion dollar opportunity given the role the immune system plays in almost all areas of medicine. To date, Adaptive has primarily focused on developing tools and services for researchers, and Sequenta has focused on developing similar technology for use in monitoring of minimal residual disease, or MRD, for patients with blood cancers. Adaptive and its collaborators also have released promising research on the use of immunosequencing to measure the immune response to solid tumors and to immunotherapeutic drugs designed to enhance the response to cancer, which is the fastest growing class of new drugs for cancer patients.

Our mission is to change the course of medicine through sequencing a patients adaptive immune system. Over the past few months it has become increasingly clear that joining forces with Sequenta would accelerate our ability to make the promise of immunosequencing a reality for physicians and patients, said Chad Robins, CEO of Adaptive. By combining our resources, we can increase the number of clinical trials we are able to run to validate clinical applications of immunosequencing, and explore new and innovative research and development initiatives that neither of us would have been able to do alone.

The companies anticipate a complementary integration of talent across senior management, R&D, bioinformatics, and sales. Sequenta founders Tom Willis and Malek Faham will join Adaptives senior leadership team reporting to Chad Robins, who will remain CEO of the combined company. Dr. Willis and Dr. John Stuelpnagel, Sequentas Chairman, Illumina co-founder, and Chairman of Ariosa Diagnostics, also will join Adaptives board of directors.

In addition to expanding the use of its research platform for academic and pharmaceutical researchers, the combined company will focus extensively on commercializing the technology for measuring MRD in blood cancers. We believe immunosequencing represents a more sensitive and accurate alternative to the current standard of care used to detect MRD in patients with blood cancers, including flow cytometry. Together, we can accelerate the adoption of this technology in clinical practice and in clinical trials for revolutionary new therapies that use MRD to determine patient specific care paradigms, said Dr. Willis.

Chad Robins will be presenting on behalf of the new combined company at the upcoming J.P. Morgan 33rd Annual Healthcare Conference in San Francisco on January 12. He will share how this strategic integration will enable the Company to expand its preeminent immunosequencing research platform and clinical diagnostic products. He will also participate on a panel later the same day with other leaders from Foundation Medicine, Invitae, and Regeneron who are likewise focused on accelerating the adoption of next generation sequencing for diagnostic applications.

J.P. Morgan acted as financial advisor to Adaptive Biotechnologies on this acquisition, which was funded in part by a new Series E financing round. DLA Piper and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati acted as legal counsel to Adaptive and Sequenta, respectively.

Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation is a platform-based, diagnostic-driven company that leverages NGS to profile T-cell and B-cell Receptors. This breakthrough enables in-depth characterization of the adaptive immune system, which is the primary defense against cancer. By incorporating immunosequencing into clinical care, Adaptive can enhance the diagnosis, prognosis and monitoring of cancer patients.

Adaptive helps researchers make discoveries in oncology, autoimmune disorders and infectious diseases by offering fee-for-service access to its proprietary immune profiling sequencing technology, which is now available to facilitate the integration of immunosequencing into research centers.

Sequenta, Inc. was founded in 2008 and has focused on the development of clinical diagnostics using immunosequencing. Sequenta markets a laboratory developed test for use in the diagnosis and monitoring of minimal residual disease in blood cancers.