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.
Caris Life Sciences
- 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.
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.
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
- 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.
