Chairman, Founder and Chief Executive Officer David Dean Halbert is a proven leader with a strong track record of growth and value creation in the energy, financial and healthcare industries. With more than 40 years of experience, Mr. Halbert continues to be one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the United States. He is a passionate advocate of personalized medicine and leads Caris Life Sciences® with a philosophy that more precise and individualized health information will lead to dramatic improvements in the quality-of-care patients receive. Mr. Halbert has been tremendously influenced by his mother’s passing from cancer, as evidenced by his personal investment, commitment, and unwavering dedication to making precision medicine a reality for cancer patients.
Prior to founding Caris Life Sciences, Mr. Halbert founded AdvancePCS® in 1987, a leading pharmacy benefits management company, where he served as Chairman and CEO until it was sold to CareMark® in 2004 for $7.5 billion. Under Mr. Halbert’s leadership, the small, privately-owned company grew into a publicly traded, Fortune® 250 corporation with over $15 billion in annual revenue. AdvancePCS became the largest pharmacy benefit manager serving more than 75 million people – one in four Americans – and managed 600 million prescription transactions annually, representing approximately $28 billion in drug expenditures. Focused on advancing quality of care while lowering healthcare costs, Mr. Halbert supplemented internal development with 11 successful strategic acquisitions, and posted 38 consecutive quarters of record-breaking earnings per share, including an unparalleled 138% compounded annual revenue growth over 14 consecutive years. When AdvancePCS was sold, it returned 31 times its initial public offering (IPO) value, 150 times the venture capital investment made by J.H. Whitney, and Caanan Partners in 1993, and 227 times the original investors’ money.
Thereafter, Mr. Halbert formed Caris Capital® in 2005. Since its formation, Mr. Halbert has managed and sold over $1.2 billion in assets acquired with a weighted average return of seven times the initial investment. Also in 2005, Mr. Halbert acquired Pathology Partners, Inc., an Irving, Texas based pathology company specializing in gastrointestinal pathology, which was later renamed Caris Diagnostics®. As chairman and CEO, Mr. Halbert grew the small gastrointestinal pathology practice into a multi-disciplinary pathology practice with more than 70 pathologists providing diagnostic services for more than 3,500 patients daily – an increase of 452% from 2005 to 2010 – and grew revenue by 40% CAGR. Later in 2011, Caris Diagnostics was sold to Miraca Life Sciences® for $725 million.
In 2008, Mr. Halbert acquired Molecular Profiling Institute (MPI), an early-stage life sciences company, with a mission to develop a universal blood-based diagnostic platform that spans early detection, therapy selection and disease monitoring. Renamed Caris Life Sciences, the next-generation biotech company has grown to become the leader in molecular science and artificial intelligence. Caris has created the large-scale, clinico-genomic database and computing capability needed to analyze and unravel the molecular complexity of disease, creating an unmatched platform to deliver the next-generation of precision medicine tools. Since 2008, Caris has helped more than half a million patients worldwide in their battle with cancer.
In May 2021, Caris raised $830 million in growth equity with a post-money valuation of $7.83 billion, which represents one of the largest capital raises in precision medicine. In January 2023, Caris closed a senior secured term loan providing up to $400 million in capital from OrbiMed and Braidwell. With these investments, Caris has raised approximately $1.7 billion in external financing since 2018.
Mr. Halbert and his family also created and solely support the Caris Foundation™, a non-profit, private foundation that aids impoverished people by helping to provide for their basic needs. Established in 2002, and headquartered in Colleyville, Texas, the award-winning Caris Foundation seeks to establish a local presence within communities in order to understand the people’s basic needs and implement solutions that are culturally relevant and sustainable across Africa and Haiti. The foundation employs more than 400 people.
In 2017, the Caris Foundation was appointed to lead a $98.5 million dollar investment by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to bolster Haiti’s health system and expand essential healthcare for up to 4.2 million people. The program, called Project Santé, comprises a consortium of partners, including the Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) and the Haitian Health Foundation (HHF), who work together to offer integrated maternal and childcare services to Haitian families, including immunization, reproductive health, nutrition services, and HIV prevention, care and treatment. As part of Project Santé, the Foundation manages more than 3,500 health workers in Haiti.
Mr. Halbert holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Abilene Christian University. In 2023, Abilene Christian University awarded Mr. Halbert with an honorary Doctorate of Science for his contributions to precision medicine and his philanthropic work across the globe.
Mr. Halbert is an author on multiple patents and publications.
- Halbert, D. et al. (May 1, 2018). Aptamers and uses thereof. S. Patent No. 9,958,448 B2. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
- Halbert, D. et al. (March 22, 2016). Molecular Profiling of Tumors. S. Patent No. 9,292,660 B2. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
- J Abraham, D Magee, C Cremolini, C Antoniotti, DD Halbert, J Xiu, P Stafford, DA Berry, MJ Oberley, AF Shields, JL Marshall, ME Salem; A Falcone, A Grothey, MJ Hall, AP Venook, HJ Lenz, A Helmstetter; M Korn, D Spetzler. Clinical validation of a machine-learning–derived signature predictive of outcomes from first-line oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy in advanced colorectal cancer. Clinical Cancer Research. 2021 Feb 15;27(4):1174-83. https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-20-3286
- S Tonapi, V Pannu, JE Duncan, M Rosenow, A Helmstetter, D Magee, Q Zhang, TT Tinder TT, M Richards, DD Halbert, M Famulok, D Spetzler, MR Miglarese, HA Oneill, G Mayer. Translocation of a cell surface spliceosomal complex induces alternative splicing events and lymphoma cell necrosis. Cell Chemical Biology. 2019 May 16;26(5):756-64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chembiol.2019.02.016
- V Domenyuk, X Liu, D Magee, Z Gatalica, A Stark, P Kennedy, M Rosenow, A Barker, DA Berry, G Poste, DD Halbert. C Hart, M Famulok, G Mayer, M Korn, MR Miglarese, D Spetzler. Poly-ligand profiling differentiates pancreatic cancer patients according to treatment benefit from gemcitabine+ placebo versus gemcitabine+ evofosfamide and identifies candidate targets. Annals of Oncology. 2018 Jun 1;29:v36. https://doi.org/10.1093/annonc/mdy151.131
- V Domenyuk, D Magee, Z Gatalica, A Stark, P Kennedy, A Barker, DA Berry, G Poste, DD Halbert, P Hart, M Famulok, G Mayer, M Korn, MR Miglarese, D Spetzler. Poly-ligand profiling (PLP) to differentiate pancreatic cancer patients who benefit from gemcitabine+ evofosfamide versus gemcitabine+ placebo treatment [abstract]. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2018 36:15_suppl, 12067-12067. https://ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/JCO.2018.36.15_suppl.12067
- V Domenyuk, Z Gatalica, R Santhanam, X Wei, A Stark, P Kennedy, B Toussaint, S Levenberg, R Wang, N Xiao, R Greil, G Rinnerthaler, S Gampenrieder, AB Heimberger, DA Berry, A Barker, J Quackenbush, JL Marshall, G Poste, JL Vacirca, GA Vidal, LS Schwartzberg, DD Halbert, A Voss, D Spetzler. Poly-ligand profiling differentiates trastuzumab-treated breast cancer patients according to their outcomes. Nature Communications. 2018 Mar 23;9(1):1219. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03631-z
- V Domenyuk, Z Gatalica, R Santhanam, X Wei, A Stark, P Kennedy, B Toussaint, S Levenberg, R Wang, N Xiao, R Greil, G Rinnerthaler, S Gampenrieder, AB Heimberger, DA Berry, A Barker, GD Demetri, J Quackenbush, JL Marshall, G Poste, JL Vacirca, GA Vidal, LS Schwartzberg, DD Halbert, A Voss; MR Miglarese, M Famulok, G Mayer, D Spetzler. Polyligand profiling differentiates cancer patients according to their benefit of treatment [abstract]. Cancer Research. 2018 Feb (78) (4 Supplement) P2-09-09. https://doi.org/10.1158/1538-7445.SABCS17-P2-09-09