November 2009
Taking a page out of their neighbor Genoptix’s playbook, AlliedPath is using its new CLIA certification to launch a specialized pathology testing business, focusing on solid tumor molecular diagnostic testing. Specifically, the company offers molecular tests for disease characterization and therapeutic monitoring of patients who have been diagnosed with lung and colon cancers. There are an estimated 365,000 new cases of these cancers reported every year in the United States to the National Cancer Institute.
Both the founders and leaders of AlliedPath have deep roots in the diagnostic testing business. One of the company’s founders and chief medical officer, Philip Ginsburg, M.D., is the former medical director at Quest Diagnostics and former senior medical director at Gen-Probe Inc. Robin Vedova, AlliedPath’s chief business officer, is also a former Gen-Probe executive. Another founder is molecular diagnostic leader Daniel Farkas, Ph.D., who is currently the vice president of clinical diagnostics at the Sequenom Center for Molecular Medicine (Grand Rapids, Mich.).
In this current venture, AlliedPath’s leaders are looking to partner with hospital-based and independent labs and pathology practices that don’t offer their specialized services, as well as provide clinical trial testing services. “We are focused solely on solid tumor molecular diagnostics, and therefore, we remain noncompetitive with those companies who we perceive to be our customers and partners, including anatomic pathology labs that are either hospital-based or independent labs,” said Ginsburg.
Like Genoptix, AlliedPath is looking to set itself apart from the national labs by providing superior customer service, including personalized reports. “Our ability to personalize the reports differentiates us from the larger, national labs who are really good at assembly-line testing but not that great on executing in this specialized testing market,” said Ginsburg. “There’s much more to offering specialized molecular diagnostic testing services than just generating a result.
This personalization starts at the requisition stage, explained Vedova. The user-friendly requisition form offers testing recommendations based on the physician’s desired outcome for the patient—such as disease characterization or therapeutic monitoring. “Then we give the physician the recommendation in a language that he or she can understand, rather than technical language from the laboratory,” she added.
AlliedPath also promises a quick turnaround time. “Within 72 hours, the physician will have a preliminary report that is actionable,” said Vedova.
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November 2009 - Table of Contents
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