Technology company Tempus AI has announced the acquisition of Paige, a company focused on digital pathology and AI, for a total of $81.25m.
The transaction will be settled through Tempus common stock, alongside the assumption of Paige’s existing commitments related to Microsoft Azure cloud services deal.
This acquisition is expected to enhance Tempus’s dataset and expand its technical team.
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Tempus founder and CEO Eric Lefkofsky said: “Paige is a leader in digital pathology and has amassed one of the most comprehensive digital pathology datasets in the world through its relationship with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre.
“We believe both the Paige team, with their deep generative AI experience, and the dataset they have built, will be catalytic across all of our AI efforts.”
Paige, established in 2017, is focused on the development of AI applications, including the first Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-cleared AI tool in pathology.
This technology aids pathologists and researchers in the detection of cancer, thereby assisting healthcare teams in making informed treatment decisions.
The company has built its products using a dataset comprising nearly seven million digitised pathology slide images and related molecular and clinical data, all anonymised to ensure patient privacy.
The dataset utilised by Paige encompasses de-identified data from 45 countries, representing a variety of genders, races, ethnicities, and regions.
This has enabled the creation of the first million-slide foundation cancer model, which supports life sciences organisations and researchers in understanding pathology data and advancing drug discovery and development.
Paige CEO and CTO Razik Yousfi said: “By joining forces with Tempus, a company already making remarkable strides in oncology diagnostics, we can bring our innovations to a broader patient population and deliver even greater impact.
“We are confident this partnership is uniquely positioned to maximise and expand the reach of our technology, ensuring it fulfills our mission of delivering powerful, data-driven insights.”
In May this year, Tempus AI expanded its partnership with Verastem Oncology to create a companion diagnostic (CDx) for the latter’s KRAS-mutant recurrent low-grade serous ovarian cancer (LGSOC) combination therapy.
