Laboratory Industry Report

Looking to expand its molecular diagnostic portfolio, LabCorp (Burlington, N.C.) has agreed to acquire Monogram Biosciences (South San Francisco, Calif.), a manufacturer of pharmacogenomic tests or companion diagnostics. According to the merger agreement, LabCorp will acquire all outstanding shares of Monogram in a cash tender offer for $4.55 per share for an implied total equity value of approximately $106.7 million, or a total enterprise value of approximately $155 million, which includes net indebtedness. The deal is expected to close by the end of the third quarter.

Outreach laboratories are enjoying 20 percent to 27 percent profitability, based on contribution margin or pretax income, compared to Quest Diagnostics’ 13.7 percent and LabCorp’s 17.8 percent for 2008, according to results from the 8th Annual National Outreach Survey, conducted by Washington G-2 Reports and Chi Solutions. Revenue per requisition is also up to $65.95 for 2008, compared to $43 for Quest (Madison, N.J.) and $38.38 for LabCorp (Burlington, N.C.). However, the survey of over 150 respondents found that outreach programs still have significantly higher days sales outstanding (DSO) and bad debt rates compared to the national competitors—two metrics under close scrutiny during this economic environment.

The recently introduced Patient Access to Critical Lab Tests Act (S.1220) will revise a current Medicare billing regulation involving hospital patients receiving testing from independent laboratories within 14 days of discharge. The bill, introduced by Sens. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), will help to alleviate access problems resulting from advanced diagnostic testing—often genetic and esoteric testing—that is ordered after a patient’s stay in the hospital, say industry experts. A companion bill was introduced in the House in March.

For the beginning of 2009, San Diego-based Genoptix and Salt Lake City-based Myriad Genetics appear to be leading the publicly traded labs in two key benchmarking measures tracked by Washington G-2 Reports—revenue per full-time employee (FTE) and pretax income per FTE (see Table 1).

Acton, Mass.-based drug testing provider Psychemedics will market its hair analysis diagnostic services in the United Kingdom through a recently announced agreement with Bupa Wellness, the health assessment division of one of the largest health care providers in the country. Bupa Wellness currently offers urine and oral fluid testing, and will now be offering Psychemedics hair analysis testing services in its workplace screening programs—whether pre-employment, random, or related to specific incidents.

A majority of hospitals are seeing a moderate or significant decline in their financial health versus last year, with over 40 percent of hospitals expecting to report losses in the first quarter of 2009, according to over 1,000 responses to a survey of American Hospital Association members taken earlier this year. But outreach hospital laboratory operations appear to be weathering the recession. Analysis of data from over 150 respondents to the 8th Annual National Outreach…

For outreach programs to grow and thrive, industry experts at the conference emphasized that labs need the support of senior hospital executives. In a keynote presentation titled “Know Your Numbers,” Michael Metzler, the former COO of St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center (Boston) and CEO of St. Anne’s Hospital (Fall River, Mass.), provided a valuable window into the mind of a CEO considering a move into outreach testing. Metzler prefaced his discussion of how to make the business case for outreach with a warning. “The lab must have a reputation for excellence before outreach can be sold to the CEO,” he said. “Weaknesses must be fixed before making the case for outreach.”

With the recent opening of a 3,500-square-foot CLIA laboratory in California, the Amsterdam-based molecular diagnostic cancer testing manufacturer Agendia appears to be increasing its efforts to drive adoption of its MammaPrint test in the United States. The Amsterdam-based company also plans on doubling its sales force this year in the United States to increase this year’s MammaPrint volume, said Vice President of Sales and Marketing Daniel Forche, who started with the company last year.

GE has committed $100 million to a new program, Stimulus Simplicity, which will offer interest-free loans for physicians and hospitals that purchase the company’s Centricity EMR products and enterprise solutions. GE Capital will provide the financing and GE Healthcare will provide the electronic medical record (EMR) product and certification warranty. EMR certification is a precursor to access the federal stimulus reimbursement funding that is part of the HITECH Act of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Adeona Pharmaceuticals has announced plans to buy Hartlab, a Bolingbrook, Ill.-based CLIA-certified lab that currently provides same-day service near its headquarters in Chicago and next-day testing services to physicians in other states, with the exception of California, Florida, and New York.

Specialized anatomic pathology testing provider CBLPath has opened a second facility located in Manhattan, as part of a focus to expand its physician client base in the lucrative New York City market. CBLPath’s main laboratory is a 66,000-square-foot facility in Rye Brook, N.Y.

As seen in late April through mid-May, lab stocks continue to be strong so far in June. Over the past five weeks, the 14 publicly traded labs tracked by the G-2 Reports Laboratory Stock Index are up an impressive 32 percent over the past 13 weeks and 11 percent over the past five weeks for the week ended June 19, 2009. So far in 2009, the index is up 21 percent. The Nasdaq also continues to post gains, although the S&P 500 continues to decline—although not as much as in recent months. For 2009, the Nasdaq is up over 11 percent, while the S&P 500 is down 1.13 percent so far this year.

As Congress takes aim at revamping health care, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are launching an effort to establish best practices in laboratory medicine. Called the Laboratory Medicine Best Practices (LMBP) project, the goal is to provide evidence-based methods that laboratory professionals can use to evaluate practice effectiveness for improving the quality of health care, to build a more robust knowledge base for the field based on the results of systematic evidence reviews, and to improve health care quality outcomes by identifying pre- and post-analytic practices that effectively improve the use laboratory testing.