Media Coverage

Aimed at making it a bit easier to track the ever-increasing list of coronavirus plays, here is a representative listof diagnostic companies that have either experienced recent volatility or may announce plans to develop tests for COVID-19. Some companies, of course, are more credible players than others.

Primary care physicians may be overconfident in their ability to recognize prescription drug misuse, a researcher suggested here.[CR-LF][CR-LF]An analysis that juxtaposed survey data from 500 primary care physicians with over a half million drug test results showed that nearly three-quarters of doctors trusted their patients to take medications as prescribed, but half of specimens showed signs of misuse, reported Jeffrey Gudin, MD, of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark, at the American Academy of Pain Medicine annual meeting.

A worker who is using the drug medicinally may fail a drug test and lose their job. But a recreational user could be making their workplace less safe for everyone if they come to work inebriated.[CR-LF][CR-LF]Enter workplace drug testing.[CR-LF][CR-LF]The rate of positive drug tests hit a 14 year high in 2018, according to a recent Los Angeles Times article. Of the 10 million tests processed by Quest Diagnostics, 4.4% tested positive for some type of drug.

Two years ago, the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) was presented with an opportunity to ratchet up adherence to one of its 30 recommendations — #21, which deals with evaluating adult patients with diabetes or hypertension for chronic kidney disease (CKD) through commonly used laboratory tests.[CR-LF][CR-LF]“What Choosing Wisely did was speed up the trajectory more than start the initiative,” said Lee Hilborne, MD, MPH, Past President and Chair of ASCP’s Appropriate Test Utilization Committee and Senior Medical Director for Quest Diagnostics, referring to the society’s partnership with the National Kidney Foundation to harmonize and simplify the testing protocol used to detect CKD.

Quest Diagnostics Incorporated announced that it is scheduled to speak at the Barclays Global Healthcare Conference in Miami. Mark Guinan, Executive Vice President and CFO, will discuss the company's vision, goals and two-point strategy to accelerate growth and drive operational excellence. The presentation is scheduled for Tuesday, March 10, 2020 at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

Democratic presidential candidates' calls for "Medicare for all" may seem like a threat to profits and innovation in the U.S. healthcare sector, but not all industry executives see it that way, even in the remote chance such a proposal is enacted. Some healthcare executives say giving the public the option of government coverage could actually be a net plus for the industry by adding more customers, particularly the estimated 44 million citizens who have no coverage. For companies like Quest Diagnostics, the largest provider of lab services, the answer is to roll up the industry to give it pricing power. "There are hundreds of laboratory companies, so our acquisition strategy is to consolidate the industry," CEO Stephen Rusckowski told Mergermarket. The company expects to spend an average of $250 million to $300 million a year on acquisitions.

While staffing shortages are one of main challenges facing the lab industry, some employees are seeing a benefit in the form of rising compensation. During Quest Diagnostics' Q4 earnings call last month, CFO Mark Guinan said that the company had seen "rising wage pressure" due to the tightening labor market. Quest President, Chairman, and CEO Steve Rusckowski noted that the firm was primarily seeing this pressure at what he called "the front end of our value chain," meaning positions like couriers and specimen processing where it competes for workers not only with other labs but also with employers outside the lab industry.

UNT Health Science Center and Quest Diagnostics are collaborating to improve outcomes for high risk patients in underserved populations. Quest, which is the leading diagnostic information services company, will use its massive trove of data from its diagnostic business to provide guidance on how to manage populations effectively.

With its recent acquisition of Finnish molecular diagnostics firm Blueprint Genetics, Quest Diagnostics is looking to expand and improve its genetic testing portfolio.[CR-LF][CR-LF]The lab company was particularly interested in Blueprint's informatics capabilities, which Carrie Eglinton Manner, Quest's senior vice president of Advanced Diagnostics, said would enhance its existing genetic test offerings by improving variant interpretation and reporting.[CR-LF][CR-LF][CR-LF]"We have full next-generation sequencing services in a number of our labs," she said. "The capability that we are really excited about is their bioinformatics capability. Their bioinformatics has a depth and flexibility, including software engineering expertise, that we can apply to our entire portfolio… to help accelerate [bringing] test offerings to market as well as expanding growth for the company."

Long Island companies may have to rethink their drug testing policies as state lawmakers renew a push to legalize recreational marijuana.[CR-LF][CR-LF]A bid for legalization narrowly failed last year. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who included the Cannabis Regulation and Taxation Act in his new budget, made it clear last month in his State of the State address that it's one of his top priorities. The New York State Bar Association threw its support behind legalization last month.