UW report highlights Exact Sciences economic impact on Wisconsin – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Dane County’s low unemployment rate, and its role as driver of Wisconsin’s economy, is tied in part to Madison-based Exact Sciences, according to a University of Wisconsin report.
“The Economic Impact of Exact Sciences on Dane County and Wisconsin” was published by UW-Madison’s Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy before Exact Sciences was acquired on March 23 by Abbott for $23 billion.
Here are some report highlights:
Exact Sciences, which created the Cologuard screening test for colorectal cancer, moved to Madison from Marlborough, Massachusetts, in 2009 with 19 employees and $4.8 million in annual revenue.
By 2025, the company had 7,200 employees, roughly half of them are based in Wisconsin, and $3.2 billion in revenue. The growth was driven primarily by the commercial success of Cologuard, a non-invasive test approved in 2014 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the report said.
Exact Sciences has been a major economic contributor to Wisconsin’s gross domestic product, the annual total value of all goods and services produced within the Badger State. The company accounts for an estimated $6 billion to $7 billion of the state’s GDP – as much as roughly 2% of that total value.
The report also has a more conservative estimate showing the company provides roughly $4.9 billion, or 1.4%, of the state GDP.
Exact Sciences contributes to the Madison area’s economy with roughly 3,500 workers in Dane County. Those employees spend their wages shopping at grocery stores, dining at restaurants, going to movies and concerts, and buying other local goods and services.
Exact Sciences workers have contributed to 23,200 jobs, and $6.6 billion in state GDP, as a part of that ripple effect.
Madison’s University Research Park has been an asset both to Exact Sciences and UW students. The research park houses Forward BIOLABS, a nonprofit life sciences incubator that has supported over 55 startup firms, with the research park’s culture helping draw Exact Sciences to Madison from Massachusetts.
By 2015, roughly 50% of Exact Sciences’ research and development workforce were UW graduates, and by 2022 that grew to 60%, the report said.
“Madison also offered a cost of living approximately 37% lower than the Boston area, with less competition for laboratory space and specialized talent,” it said.
The report highlights how university-adjacent communities can create biotech companies that have significant regional economic effects and how a one company “can have an outsized impact on a regional economy through direct employment, multiplier effects, capital investment, and the deepening of a local innovation ecosystem.”
It concluded by raising a serious question regarding the acquisition by Abbott. That medical test-making company operates its corporate campus around 40 miles north of downtown Chicago, near Libertyville, Illinois.
“Whether Abbott will maintain the firm’s Madison workforce at current scale, or whether functions will eventually consolidate at the acquirer’s headquarters, will shape the long-run trajectory of Madison’s life sciences cluster,” the report states.

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