MADISON, Wis., Nov. 8, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Highlights:

• Exact Sciences selects 650 Forward Drive in Madison as site for expanded lab; company also takes ownership of existing office building on site, renamed 1 Exact Lane.
• Campus offers potential to accommodate more than 1,000 employees.
• Combined lab operations will provide Exact Sciences the capacity to deliver more than 4.5 million Cologuard results per year.

Alongside team members, community partners and city officials, Exact Sciences chairman and CEO Kevin Conroy announced the company will build additional laboratory facilities at 650 Forward Drive on the City of Madison's near west side. Scheduled to open in mid-2019, the new facilities will enable the company to create more than 250 jobs over five years as Exact Sciences (NASDAQ: EXAS) adds capacity to meet increasing demand for Cologuard, its noninvasive colorectal cancer screening test.

Also today, Conroy announced that Exact Sciences is now the owner of the existing office building on the same site -- previously known as 601 Rayovac Drive, now named 1 Exact Lane. Formerly leased by the company, the office space currently houses approximately 350 members of Exact Sciences' growing Customer Care, IT and administrative teams. Future renovations could increase its capacity to approximately 1,000 employees.

"Doctors and patients are increasingly choosing the convenience of Cologuard over other colon cancer screening methods," said Conroy. "Expanding in our hometown allows us to maintain Exact Sciences' unique, customer-focused culture that's made Cologuard a tremendous success. We're excited to add to our teams and facilities to help even more people get screened with Cologuard for colon cancer."

Together, the new lab and expanded office space will form a world-class employee campus, complete with a cafeteria, health facilities and parking structures to attract top talent and support employee well-being.

Immediately following the site announcements, Exact Sciences broke ground on the new lab. Once finished, the new facility and the company's existing lab, located at 145 Badger Road, will give Exact Sciences a capacity to process more than 4.5 million Cologuard tests per year.

The Badger Road lab will continue operations and expansions are already underway to increase its capacity from about 1 million Cologuard tests per year to 2.5 million or more tests per year. The Badger Road expansion activities will allow Exact Sciences to scale and continue meeting demand while the second lab facility of 2 million tests per year is built on Forward Drive.

"Today's announcement continues the great story of this industry-leading, Madison-based biotech company," said City of Madison mayor Paul Soglin. "Exact Sciences is not only a great employer, but is also an extremely engaged member of our community, contributing to causes and organizations that make Madison such a great place to live, work and raise a family. We are proud to have them here and look forward to Exact Sciences' continued success."

Exact Sciences will work with the City of Madison and Urban League of Greater Madison on the Park Edge Park Ridge (PEPR) neighborhood employment center to conduct job training and recruitment seminars to fill jobs being created by the second lab. This work will include devoting staff time from members of Exact Sciences' human resources team to PEPR and a significant financial commitment to the Urban League over the next three years to support job training efforts.

"Exact Sciences is a longtime supporter of the Urban League's job training and economic development programs and we're excited to continue working with them to create high-quality jobs that strengthen our local communities and provide new opportunities for families to get ahead," said Ruben L. Anthony, Jr., president and CEO, Urban League of Greater Madison.

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cancer killer in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Exact Sciences' Cologuard screening test looks for blood and altered DNA associated with colon cancer and precancerous growths in a person's stool sample.

Once prescribed by a health care professional, a Cologuard collection kit is delivered to the patient's home. Individuals collect their sample on their own time and use a prepaid return shipping label to send the specimen to Exact Sciences Laboratories in Madison, Wis. for processing. Test results are sent directly to the health care provider's office within a few weeks and patients get to avoid the preparation, dietary and medication restrictions associated with a screening colonoscopy.

The screening test is backed by Exact Sciences' support services, which include a 24/7 phone line dedicated to answering questions from doctors and patients, as well as helpful patient reminders which lead to higher test completion rates than other colorectal cancer screening methods.

Since Cologuard launched three years ago, approximately 91,000 providers have ordered the test through the end of the third quarter of 2017. As of October 30, 2017, Exact Sciences guidance is for 568,000-572,000 Cologuard tests to be completed during 2017, up from its previous guidance of at least 550,000 tests.

Media contact:  
Scott Larrivee, Exact Sciences, 608-287-9261 (mobile), slarrivee@exactsciences.com 

Investor contact:
Megan Jones, Exact Sciences, 608-535-8815, meganjones@exactsciences.com

EDITORS AND PRODUCERS PLEASE NOTE:
Media resources, including B-roll, laboratory photos and logos are available at http://www.exactsciences.com/latest-news/press-room.

About Exact Sciences Corp.
Exact Sciences Corp. is a molecular diagnostics company focused on the early detection and prevention of the deadliest forms of cancer. The company has exclusive intellectual property protecting its non-invasive, molecular screening technology for the detection of colorectal cancer. For more information, please visit the company's website at www.exactsciences.com, follow Exact Sciences on Twitter @ExactSciences or find Exact Sciences on Facebook.

About Cologuard
Cologuard was approved by the FDA in August 2014 and results from Exact Sciences' prospective 90-site, point-in-time, 10,000-patient pivotal trial were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in March 2014. Cologuard is included in the American Cancer Society's (2014) colorectal cancer screening guidelines and the recommendations of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (2016) and National Comprehensive Cancer Network (2016). Cologuard is indicated to screen adults of either sex, 50 years or older, who are at average risk for colorectal cancer. Cologuard is not for everyone and is not a replacement for diagnostic colonoscopy or surveillance colonoscopy in high-risk individuals. False positives and false negatives do occur. Any positive test result should be followed by a diagnostic colonoscopy. Following a negative result, patients should continue participating in a screening program at an interval and with a method appropriate for the individual patient. Cologuard performance when used for repeat testing has not been evaluated or established. For more information about Cologuard, visit www.cologuardtest.com. Rx Only.

Safe Harbor Statement
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SOURCE EXACT SCIENCES CORP