For the third time since Genelex was founded, the Seattle-based company leading the way in DNA sensitivity testing to help combat adverse drug events has been named one of Washington’s 100 fastest-growing private companies.

The Puget Sound Business Journal has released its list of the state’s fastest-growing companies, and Genelex is included for the second year in a row. The rankings, revealed at an Oct. 9 awards banquet at the Sheraton Hotel Seattle, put Genelex at number 47.

Genelex was the ninth fastest-growing company on the Business Journal’’s prestigious list last year and saw its first inclusion on the list in 1995. Howard Coleman, Genelex CEO and chairman of the Board of Directors, says the recognition is due in no small part to healthcare practitioners’ increasing recognition of the value of personalized medicine.

“We were in business for 20-plus years before we started to grow,” says Coleman, who founded Genelex as a paternity-testing laboratory in 1987 with wife Dr. Tia Aulinskas.

“The shift to 100 percent pharmacogenetic testing in 2012 has given the company the focus necessary to fuel this kind of growth,” says Coleman, who accepted the award at the Oct. 9 event.

A complete list of the fastest-growing companies can be found here. To make the Business Journal’s list, companies must have recorded revenue of at least $500,000 in 2011 and demonstrated revenue growth through 2013. The companies must also be privately held, cannot be subsidiaries of other companies and must have the company CEO submit revenues in writing for the past three years.

“Together, the companies that made this year’s list recorded more than $2.08 billion in revenue in 2013 and employ more than 8,805 people, fueling the state’s economy and propelling this region’s rapid growth,” writes Becky Monk, Business Journal assistant managing editor.

This recognition comes within a month of Genelex being honored with the silver award in the health category of Seattle Business magazine’s 2014 Tech Impact Awards.

Genelex first began offering DNA drug sensitivity testing in 2000 and was a pioneer in this field, being one of the first labs to offer such services. Genelex first added the YouScript software to its testing services in 2007 and has been making strides in improving both since then, such as becoming integrated with the Allscripts electronic healthcare records system. Genelex began focusing solely on developing medication management tools and services in 2012.