Medical genetic testing company Invitae announced Tuesday it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Ciitizen, a startup that helps users access and organize their health records, for about $325 million.

The terms of the deal include around $125 million in cash and approximately 7,070,000 shares of Invitae common stock. Invitae will also issue about $226 million restricted stock units to new employees who join the company as part of the acquisition.

"Invitae is relentlessly pursuing a day when genetics is used routinely to improve healthcare for billions of people around the globe. We believe combining Ciitizen's state-of-the-art, transparent and patient-consented platform with our technologies and services will accelerate our evolution into a genome information company that informs healthcare throughout one's life,” Invitae co-founder and CEO Sean George said in a statement. 

“This would give us the ability to engage patients, create an innovative patient-centered data ecosystem and deliver better outcomes for everyone. Invitae views the acquisition of Ciitizen as an important part of its strategy to be the industry leader across the genetic testing, software and health information technology spaces." 

WHY IT MATTERS

Invitae said the acquisition would allow it to provide an easy-to-use hub for patients’ clinical and genomic data. 

"Genomics is currently a laboratory testing-based industry, but in the future it will look very much like an information industry. Developing an open-ended patient-centric platform of genomic, clinical and reported outcomes creates a thriving and purposeful network that truly advances healthcare,” George said in a statement.

On a call with investors, Ciitizen founder and CEO Anil Sethi said many patients struggle to access their health records and may miss opportunities to join clinical trials when they become ill. 

Sethi, who worked at Apple after his previous startup Gliimpse was acquired, built the company after his sister died of breast cancer in 2017. When he tried to access his sister’s full medical record, he received a mass of pdfs with unstructured clinical data. 

“It’s tragic that in the most advanced healthcare system, because of a lack of connectivity, standards and even personal access, there’s no way for patients to fully arm themselves against cancer and other serious conditions,” he said.

THE LARGER TREND

Invitae acquired another genomics company, Genosity, in April. The company reported $116.3 million in revenue for the quarter ended June 30, compared with $46.2 million in the same period in 2020. Its preliminary net loss was $129 million, compared with $166.4 million in the prior year.