Tempus CEO Eric Lefkofsky discusses the company's artificial intelligence-driven precision medicine partnership with Merck on ‘The Claman Countdown.’ #fox #media #breakingnews #us #usa #new #news #breaking #foxbusiness #theclamancountdown #tempus #ericlefkofsky #lefkofsky #merck #ai #artificialintelligence #healthcare #precisionmedicine #medicine #medicalresearch #technology #clinicaldata #patientcare #healthtech
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What Eric Lefkofsky said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Eric Lefkofsky, cofounder and CEO of Tempus, discussed the company's role in tumor sequencing and AI-driven precision medicine. He said Tempus is the largest sequencer of cancer patients in the world and that sequencing is essential to identify targeted therapies. He described the personalized mRNA melanoma cancer vaccine as the first truly personalized therapeutic, built in units of one based on a patient's molecular profile. Lefkofsky noted Tempus was selected by Moderna as a partner for Phase One and Phase Two trials. He mentioned the acquisition of Personalis in July for $1.5 billion, which strengthens post-treatment monitoring capabilities. He also discussed a partnership with AstraZeneca to build a multi-modal foundation model using hundreds of petabytes of data. Lefkofsky argued that healthcare costs are dwarfed by the $2 trillion in annual waste and errors, making a $1,000 test that avoids a $100,000 problem a no-brainer. He said Tempus works with 19 of the 20 largest pharmaceutical companies.
Key takeaways
Tempus is the largest sequencer of cancer patients in the world, generating data for targeted therapy selection.
Tempus was selected by Moderna as a partner for Phase One and Phase Two trials of the vaccine.
Tempus acquired Personalis in July for $1.5 billion, adding post-treatment monitoring capabilities.
Tempus is building a multi-modal foundation model with AstraZeneca using hundreds of petabytes of data.
2:00Can you explain it to the audience specifically what that means?
3:14What does that bring to Tempus when it comes to the biomarkers and helping you guys get that sort of a jump ahead, work with the other world, have partnerships with Merck?
5:37That custom oncology treatment, will it cost more?
Fox Business Alert: Investors have been big on a new era for cancer treatment. Since the August 19th announcement of positive initial results from the first-ever late-stage trial for the personalized mRNA melanoma cancer vaccine we've been talking about from Moderna and Merck, both companies' shares skyrocketed. Moderna is up 25 percent and Merck is still up 10 percent just since late August. And the future possibilities have added more than $50 billion in combined market value for the two drugmakers. Going to the Wall Street Journal, the discoveries partake in a gold rush in a small but very fast-growing corner of healthcare: tumor sequencing. And one picks and shovels in this subsector, Tim, is AI. We spot personalized cancer therapy since the Moderna and Merck vaccine has exploded by 30 percent. Joining me now for this Fox Business exclusive is billionaire founder and CEO of Tempus. Hi, Eric Lefkofsky. And Eric, it sure is a brave new world of healthcare and discovery in so many ways. In your specific prism through which you look, this custom medicine, tell me about how Tempus does it in such a different way.
Well, I mean, as the largest sequencer of cancer patients in the world, generating the necessary data that you would need to figure out what is the right therapeutic for these patients is the first step. If you do not sequence these patients, nobody can figure out the appropriate targeted therapy for the cancer-facing patients. The U.S. leads the world in terms of sequencing, and Tempus is the leader in that space. It's an honor to play a role in the rollout for Moderna and Merck.
So we sequenced the human genome about 20-plus years ago. Since then, the cost has come way down, and so tech companies have become very large sequencers, like a million or so. Here are some very large numbers, and basically generating the data that positions the physicians to put them on radiotherapy or chemotherapy or targeted therapy. It's an incredible lens to be able to figure out what is the right approach for each individual person. Well, each tumor is different, and the way the immune system responds to the tumor in every part of it is unique and different. And so what is awesome about this new class of drugs, the personalized vaccines, is that it's really the first time where we are building therapeutics in units of one, based on a patient's molecular profile. We talk about personalized medicine, but it's really been targeted at best. This is the first moment where it is truly personalized, like your drug is unique to you. And Tempus' next-generation sequencing is part of that sequence.
And you acquired that in July for $1.5 billion, $60.25 a share. What does that bring to Tempus when it comes to the biomarkers and helping you guys get that sort of a jump ahead, work with the other world, have partnerships with Merck?
There's different sequencing. One is to look at inherited risk of getting cancer. One is what we do when you have cancer, to help you with therapy selection, profiling. Another category is to monitor you post-treatment. Personalis is a leader in that space. The companies that are larger, like Natera, is a leader in that space in terms of developing really amazing sequencing to figure out, like, out of a Moderna trial, the patient's post being treated for cancer. Whole genome sequencing. We've built an incredible portfolio of sequencing capabilities that were originally selected by Moderna to be the partner for Phase One and Phase Two.
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Lefkofsky, E. (2026, September 12). REVOLUTIONIZING HEALTHCARE: Tempus partners with Merck on AI-driven precision medicine [Interview transcript]. Fox Business. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/2917106/
MLA
Eric Lefkofsky. "REVOLUTIONIZING HEALTHCARE: Tempus partners with Merck on AI-driven precision medicine." Fox Business, 12 Sep. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/2917106/.
BibTeX
@misc{lefkofsky2026_2917106,
author = {Eric Lefkofsky},
title = {REVOLUTIONIZING HEALTHCARE: Tempus partners with Merck on AI-driven precision medicine},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, Fox Business. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {sep},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/2917106/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
