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By subscribing to Laboratory Industry Report, each month you'll get an insider's view of the lab industry's most important business and financial trends, plus predictions for the coming year.
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- Comparative data on lab pricing
- Information and explanations describing how to deal with healthcare integration, capitation, technology advances, etc.
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- Updates on late-breaking mergers & acquisitions.
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 | LIR February 2007 (full PDF issue) |
| TOP OF THE NEWS
Lab industry tries consumer marketing
LabCompete conference lowdown
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
Sonic buys remaining 18% of CPL
CONTRACT/COVERAGE NEWS
Bio-Reference out with NJ’s Horizon
United will cover Oncotype DX
PATHOLOGY
RedPath leverages technology
ON CAPITOL HILL
Critical issues for 2007
INSIDE THE LAB INDUSTRY
Lab players market to consumers
TECHNOLOGY
Spectrum chooses MercuryMD EHR
FINANCIAL
Lab stocks up 29% in 2006
INDUSTRY BUZZ
FDA to hold meeting on IVDMIAs
Full Article |
| Lab Execs Map Out Competitive Strategies |
| Senior executives from hospital laboratories and independent reference laboratories nationwide met in Phoenix in December to discuss strategies for competing in an environment where costs are squeezed, technology is changing, electronic medical records are rapidly gaining hold, and two giant national labs hold significant market share. The forum was LabCompete: Strategies for 2007, Washington G2 Reports’ inaugural conference on how to compete and gain market share in the clinical laboratory industry of today—and of tomorrow.
Full Article |
| Lab Industry Follows Pharma Into Direct-to-Consumer Marketing |
| It’s hard to believe that until recently, it was unheard of to see prescription drugs advertised in slick advertisements, encouraging viewers to ask their doctors if certain medications are right for them before lapsing into hurried lists of reported side effects. Then Digene took the cue of pharmaceutical companies and mounted a massive media campaign for its human papilloma virus (HPV) test, a move that was recently followed by Merck’s campaign for Gardasil, its new vaccine that can prevent some types of cervical cancer. Now the clinical laboratory is getting into the act—almost.
Full Article |
| Horizon/LabCorp Deal Ousts Bio-Reference |
| Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey (Horizon; Newark, NJ) will terminate its longtime in-network provider relationship with Bio-Reference Laboratories (Elmwood Park, NJ) on March 31 of this year, according to a letter recently received by Bio-Reference. Two other New Jersey-based laboratories were also dropped from Horizon’s panel of in-network providers. LabCorp and AtlantiCare Clinical Labs are now Horizon’s only two in-network lab service providers.
Full Article |
| Sonic Deviates From Offshore Strategy, Acquires Remaining 18% of CPL |
| In December, Sonic Healthcare (Sonic; Sydney, Australia) announced that it would acquire American Esoteric Labs (AEL; Nashville, TN) for $180 million. However, unlike their October acquisition of Cognoscenti Health Institute, which was purchased through what was thought to be Sonic’s United States subsidiary, Clinical Pathology Laboratories (CPL), Sonic positioned the AEL acquisition as a purchase by Sonic, not CPL. Now the reason for that is clear. Upon completing the AEL acquisition in late January, Sonic announced that it would also acquire the remaining 18% of CPL, in which it purchased an 82% stake in October 2005. Sonic paid $82.7 million for the minority interests, which implies that the value of the businesses has appreciated by about 13% since the majority of CPL was acquired.
Full Article |
| RedPath Builds on a Convergence of Technology |
| Pittsburgh-based RedPath Integrated Pathology is hoping to fill an existing critical need by merging cutting-edge molecular technology tools with standard pathology practice, focusing first on cancer diagnostics. Founded in 2004 by Sydney Finkelstein, M.D., RedPath is built on a proprietary, patented Topographic Genotyping platform, a high throughput molecular profiling system.
Full Article |
| New Congress to Influence Critical Laboratory, Pathology Issues |
| Even before officially taking control of the 110th Congress, Democratic leaders promised to give priority to a broad range of healthcare issues, including coverage of an estimated 47 million uninsured Americans, expanded stem cell research, and changes to the Medicare prescription drug benefit program. At stake this year for clinical laboratories and pathologists are two particularly critical issues: competitive bidding and increased regulation of both "home brew" lab tests and a subgroup of complex molecular tests that the FDA calls In Vitro Diagnostic Multivariate Index Assays (IVDMIAs).
Full Article |
| Cutting Out the Middle Man? Major Lab Players Target Patients in New Media Campaigns |
| When Digene advertised their new human papilloma virus (HPV) test on Oprah, it was big news. After all, this seemed to bypass physicians, who order the test, and appeal directly to consumers. Yet because there are physicians between the laboratory and the patient, it’s probably not appropriate to call this type of advertising direct-to-consumer (DTC).
Full Article |
| United Will Cover Oncotype DX Testing |
| UnitedHealthCare (Minnetonka, MN), one of the nation’s largest private payors, will now reimburse for Oncotype DX, Genomic Health’s breast cancer test service. United’s new policy establishes coverage across all of UnitedHealthcare’s plans for women with early-stage breast cancer. Coverage is scheduled to become effective for claims for services performed after January 2 of this year. Oncotype DX quantifies the likelihood of breast cancer recurrence and predicts the likelihood of chemotherapy benefit for some early-stage breast cancer patients.
Full Article |
| Spectrum to Use Thomson’s MercuryMD Mobile EHR System |
| Spectrum Laboratory Network (Greensboro, NC) will deploy MercuryMD, an electronic health record (EHR) platform of Thomson Healthcare, across its affiliated network of hospitals in North Carolina and Tennessee. MercuryMD, which the company terms a "mobile health record," will enable the more than 20,000 doctors in Spectrum’s network to have immediate access to laboratory results and patient information anywhere via a smartphone or PDA. This service will also be available to all independent physicians and physician groups within Spectrum’s five-state market, which consists of the Carolinas, Tennessee, Georgia, and Virginia.
Full Article |
| Lab Stocks Rose 29% In 2006; Genomic Health Was Best Performer |
| Eleven laboratory stocks rose an unweighted average of 29% last year versus respective gains of 14% and 10% for the S&P 500 Index and the Nasdaq. Overall, nine stocks rose in price and two fell.
Full Article |
| FDA to Hold Meeting on IVDMIAs |
| The FDA is coming closer to deciding the regulatory fate of complex genetic testing . . . On February 8, the FDA Office of In Vitro Diagnostic Evaluation and Safety (OIVD) will hold a public meeting on In Vitro Diagnostic Multivariate Index Assays (IVDMIAs) at the Hilton Washington, DC/Gaithersburg Hotel. During the public forum, the OIVD will hear from interested stakeholders, regarding the draft guidance issued late last year, which is intended to provide clarification on the FDA’s approach to regulation of in vitro diagnostic multivariate index assays.
Full Article |
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