LabCorp and Lee Hood Hook Up

Burlington, NC-based LabCorp this week announced it has entered into a strategic consulting deal with molecular biologist and biomedical visionary Leroy Hood, an inventor of pioneering automated DNA sequencing technology and founder of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle.

According to a LabCorp statement, the relationship will seek to “develop innovative programs that accelerate the integration of medicine and molecular diagnostics.”

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

“A key component of LabCorp's future in molecular diagnostics is our ability to anticipate and fulfill medical needs by offering testing that can have a significant impact on patient management," Myla Lai-Goldman, executive vice president, chief scientific officer and medical director of LabCorp said in a statement.

LabCorp is one of three publicly held medical testing companies, joining Quest and LabOne, as well as privately held Speciality Labs, in conducting some 40 percent of the work done in the clinical testing market, which estimated at $41 billion a year, with the majority of testing conducted by hospital labs.

However, the clinical testing market is only growing at a single-digit pace, while new and non-routine tests, such as genomic testing, are seen as a double-digit growers with corporations like the LabCorps better positioned than hospital labs to serve that market due to the complexity of the equipment and the tests, as well as the licensing and royalties required to play in that arena.

It is very early in this shift to more genetic testing and there are few scientifically proven and FDA-approved biomarkers to base broader testing upon, but this will change in time.

By aligning with Hood, LabCorp is taking a relatively low-risk, low-cost option that, no doubt, it hopes will give it some protection against being blindsided by future developments in medical testing.