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Seven companies shaking up Dallas-Fort Worth’s emerging biotech landscape

North Texas is fertile ground for biomedical and pharmaceutical companies.

As North Texas develops into a major hub for biomedical and pharmaceutical companies, the business mix now includes established players, breakthrough firms and upstarts. Here are seven companies to watch.

Established players

Reata Pharmaceuticals
  • Founded: 2002
  • Headquarters: Plano
  • Founder: J. Warren Huff
  • Market cap: $3.79 billion (IPO in 2016)
  • Ticker symbol: RETA on Nasdaq
  • Research and development expenses through 2020: $934 million.
  • Developing drugs to treat conditions including chronic kidney disease and Friedreich’s ataxia, a genetic disorder that causes progressive damage to the nervous system, as well as other neurological and autoimmune conditions.
Reata Pharmaceuticals executives rang the bell at Nasdaq on May 26, 2016.
Reata Pharmaceuticals executives rang the bell at Nasdaq on May 26, 2016.(Christopher Galluzzo/Nasdaq)
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Caris Life Sciences
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  • Founded: 1996
  • Headquarters: Irving
  • Founder: David D. Halbert
  • Estimated valuation: $7.8 billion
  • Funding raised: $1.3 billion in private equity financing.
  • Creates DNA and RNA profiles of patients that help doctors make more personalized treatment decisions; also developing a system to match and enroll patients in clinical trials and a blood test to detect certain types of cancer.
David D. Halbert, founder and chairman of Caris Life Sciences.
David D. Halbert, founder and chairman of Caris Life Sciences.(Dan Sellers / Courtesy of Caris Life Sciences)
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Next big things

Taysha Gene Therapies
  • Founded: 2020
  • Headquarters: Dallas
  • Founder: RA Session II
  • Market cap: $662 million (IPO in 2020)
  • Ticker symbol: TSHA on Nasdaq
  • Research and development expenses through 2020: $32 million.
  • Developing gene therapies for diseases that affect the central nervous system, including giant axonal neuropathy, Rett syndrome, and fragile X syndrome.
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Dallas-based Instil Bio Inc. went public this year. CEO Bronson Crouch rang the opening bell...
Dallas-based Instil Bio Inc. went public this year. CEO Bronson Crouch rang the opening bell at Nasdaq.(Nasdaq Inc.)
Instil Bio
  • Founded: 2018
  • Headquarters: Dallas
  • Chairman and CEO: Bronson Crouch
  • Market cap: $3 billion (IPO in 2021)
  • Ticker symbol: TIL on Nasdaq
  • Research and development expenses through first half of 2021: $35.6 million
  • Developing tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes to treat cancers including melanoma and cervical cancer.

Up and comers

OncoNano Medicine
  • Founded: 2014
  • Headquarters: Southlake
  • Founders: Ravi Srinivasan and Jinming Gao
  • Funding raised: $116.7 million
  • Conducting clinical trials for its imaging agent, pegsitacianine, that allows surgeons to see the exact location of cancerous tumors.
Eosera
Elyse Stoltz Dickerson and Joe Griffin are co-founders of Eosera.
Elyse Stoltz Dickerson and Joe Griffin are co-founders of Eosera. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer)
  • Founded: 2015
  • Headquarters: Fort Worth
  • Founders: Elyse Dickerson and Joe Griffin
  • Revenue grew 433% in the past two years and it’s one of the fastest-growing private companies in the state, according to Inc. magazine.
  • Manufactures over-the-counter ear and nose care products for needs including earwax blockage and nasal irritation. Eosera products are in over 13,000 stores nationwide including CVS, Rite Aid and Walmart.
ReCode Therapeutics
  • Founded: 2015
  • Headquarters: Dallas
  • CEO and President: David J. Lockhart
  • Funding raised: $29.5 million
  • Programs to help treat cystic fibrosis and primary ciliary dyskinesia are in preclinical stages, using a non-viral lipid nanoparticle to deliver a payload to a specific organ.