With the recent announcement of a $167 million Series D funding round, Color becomes a unicorn, with a $1.5 billion valuation [1]. The announcement does not come as a surprise to any student at 性视界 Business School. For many of these students, a coffee chat at Chao or a lift session at Shad does not go by without a quick stop for Color COVID-19 test drop off.<\/p>\n
A California company, founded in 2015, began as a genetics testing company, offering patients and their physicians an affordable and convenient way to “understand their genetic risk of cancer” by testing for most common mutations associated with cancer [2]. Its genetics product offering began with BRCA1 and BRCA2 saliva test, mutations in which are responsible for most of hereditary cases of breast and ovarian cancers. At the time, a similar test could cost a patient or their insurer $4,000. Color offered the test for $249. Today, they offer testing for\u00a072 \u00a0additional genes, which cover the most common causes of inherited cancer and heart disease as well as metabolism of medications [3]. The price of the expanded offering remained unchanged – true to its founding mission to reduce disparities in access to high-quality genetic testing.<\/p>\n
A key strategic move for the company was its proposition as a business-to-business company, focusing on partnerships with employers, unions, and governments to provide these services to their employees, members, and constituents, which differentiated it from its direct-to-consumer competitor, 23andme. Color also built a reputation for itself by building out its partnerships with some of the top academic institutions in the US, including the Broad Institute, 性视界 University, and Stanford University. In its early stages, the company heavily invested in software design to ensure seamless and interactive delivery of sensitive information to their customers. The platform also connected all customers to free genetic-counseling to ensure that any user of its product had no unanswered questions after learning about their result [2]. Additionally, Color prioritized incorporation of big data and bioinformatics into its strategy to position itself to become a frontrunner in digital public health.<\/p>\n
When COVID-19 struck the US early last year, the testing was very limited. Many people with suspected infection were denied testing, as it was reserved only for the sickest patients. The greatest limitation was the capacity of PCR tests, which were time and resource intensive. Color saw an opportunity to take advantage of the digital infrastructure it has built to contribute to the testing effort. Once it developed a CLIA test, a much faster and cheaper testing technology, it opened up its first testing lab in San Francisco in April 2020, which became the highest capacity site in the United States [4]. Since then, the company has signed on countless partners for its COVID-19 testing platform, including local governments, hospital systems, and businesses [3].<\/p>\n
Although the testing technology and autonomization of the testing process was important for Color’s success, it was the digital platform it has developed as a genetics testing company and the analytical tools behind it that allowed it to make significant contributions to the public health effort of containing the spread of COVID-19 through “risk screening, test ordering, results delivery, case management, contact tracing, and public health agency case reporting” [5]. \u00a0The company also stayed true to its mission, making its platform available to others. According to the company, their\u00a0integrated software platform contributed to vaccine research and epidemiological and observational studies.<\/p>\n
The pandemic has brought a lot of companies to a stall. However, Color was able to use the pandemic to position itself as a leader within the digital public health space, saving lives, while also transitioning itself from a California start-up into a unicorn. The digital platform it has built over the last year will continue to power the public health and clinical research efforts across the country long after the pandemic is over.<\/p>\n
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References:<\/p>\n
[1]\u00a0Morris, D., 2021. Health-tech platform Color is a unicorn after new funding round<\/i>. [online] Fortune. Available at: <https:\/\/fortune.com\/2021\/01\/04\/color-unicorn-funding-round-valuation-health-tech\/> [Accessed 10 February 2021].<\/p>\n
[2] Kendall, M., 2021. New Product from Color Genomics Makes Comprehensive Genetic Testing for Breast and Ovarian Cancer Risk Affordable<\/i>. [online] Businesswire.com. Available at: <https:\/\/www.businesswire.com\/news\/home\/20150421005174\/en\/Product-Color-Genomics-Comprehensive-Genetic-Testing-Breast> [Accessed 10 February 2021].<\/p>\n
[3] Color. 2021. Products For Your Patient<\/i>. [online] Available at: <https:\/\/www.color.com\/providers\/products> [Accessed 10 February 2021].<\/p>\n
[4] Letter on the CDC & FDA. 2021. Color; Color to launch COVID-19 testing lab, open-source infrastructure to bolster national response to pandemic<\/i>.<\/p>\n
[5] PR Newswire. 2021.\u00a0Color to launch COVID-19 testing lab, open-source infrastructure to bolster national response to pandemic. [online] Available at: <<\/em>http:\/\/www.prnewswire.com\/news-releases\/color-to-launch-covid-19-testing-lab-open-source-infrastructure-to-bolster-national-response-to-pandemic-301032363.html> [Accessed 10 February 2021].<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Color: a\u00a0genetics testing company took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to transforms itself into a digital public health unicorn with a colorful future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18520,"featured_media":13952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[2849],"class_list":["post-13836","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-covid-19","hck-taxonomy-organization-color","hck-taxonomy-industry-health","hck-taxonomy-country-united-states"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/assignment\/digital-winners-during-the-pandemic\/","yoast_head":"\n