BioCentury
ARTICLE | Deals

Thrive takeout could herald consolidation trend for early cancer detection companies 

Exact Sciences’ $2.2B acquisition of Thrive closely followed Illumina’s $8B takeout of Grail; could a Roche buyout of Freenome be next?

October 28, 2020 2:35 AM UTC

Thrive’s acquisition by Exact Sciences is the second in what could be a trend of big testing technology players investing in, and then buying up, early cancer detection companies.

The news came along with upbeat earnings for the diagnostics company and draft guidelines from the United States Preventive Services Task Force that would update colorectal cancer screening guidelines, which already include the company’s Cologuard, to recommend screening five years earlier...