b'C olorados life sciences community haslife. In contrast, Invitae managed testing forDid something great result? Myers thinks seen a recent wave of major companyclinicians, and focused on predicting futureso.Evenwithaddedchallengesdueto acquisitions, mergers, and significanthealth issues based on inherited DNA.the pandemic, the deal is generating the financings. The activity is raising awarenessA combined company could offer clientsexpected synergies, he says. Invitae main-about promising opportunities for investmentgreater choice, giving it broader market appeal. tains its company headquarters in California. and generating new interest in companies atAs a subsidiary, ArcherDX is maintaining its all stages of commercialization. So it covers the full continuum from birth toBoulder facilities and may even expand in the deathit covers the full patient spectrum,near future.These Colorado-grown companies beganand it covers the full business model, Myers as startups and grew into headline-makingsays. It kind of answers an age-old argumentThat success, in turn, may be an incentive for acquisitions and IPOs. For their leaders,of where is the market going to go? This way,other Colorado life sciences companies to look synergies and opportunities to scale drove thewe dont care. at mergers as growth opportunities. deals, as well as timing, market needs, andI hope its influential on how the community bold visions for the future of patient care. Merger discussions began around Thanksgiving 2019, when Invitaes CEO, Sean George,here would think about their end goal, Myers Collaboration Prompts Ph.D., visited Colorado, where several of hissays. There was this sense that you couldnt ArcherDX Acquisition employees were based. Since Invitae andbuild a company like this. And now thats changed.Major deals often are the result of convergedArcherDX ran in the same research circles,I think thats pretty exciting, he adds.interests, and that was the case for the $1.4Myers and George would often meet to catch up. That was the case during this trip. As theArray BioPharma Dealbillion acquisition of ArcherDX (Boulder) bytwo talked, the idea of a merger began to form. Catapults Growth Invitae (San Francisco) in October 2020.Timing played a big role. ArcherDX, originallyOne on the biggest deals Colorado life sci-ArcherDX Founder Jason Myers, Ph.D., now afounded in 2013, was preparing for an initialences history was the July 2019 acquisition member of Invitaes Board of Directors, saidpublic offering (IPO). The fact that it was onof Array BioPharma (Boulder) by Pfizer (New ArcherDX was one of the first startups inthe verge of going public meant Invitae hadYork). Not only was it one of the highest-value Colorado to focus on using DNA to monitorto move. They had to react to our timelineColorado life sciences transactions to date at and treat diseases.which I think is always a fantastic position to$11.4 billion, but it created momentum for the Invitae also was working on DNA-basedbe in, Myers says. new companies launched by Array alumni.monitoring, but the two companies hadBut while that might have been an incentive,Founded in 1998, Array drew Pfizers attention different approaches. ArcherDX made testinghe stresses that the joy was this common- because of its promising portfolio of small-mol-components for clinicians, allowing them toality, and this altruism was what made it comeecule medicines for treatment of cancer, and do in-house lab work. It also focused on man- together. The focus was how can we makeother diseases. Its flagship drugs included a aging acute diseases in patients to prolongsomething great together? combination of BRAFTOVI (encorafenib) and .THE JOY WAS THIS COMMONALITY, AND THIS ALTRUISM WAS WHAT MADE IT COME TOGETHER. THE FOCUS WAS HOW CAN WE MAKE SOMETHING GREAT TOGETHER? JASON MYERS, PH.D., FOUNDER, ARCHERDX2021-2022 BIOSCIENCECOLORADO27'