LabCorp Forms Lab-Alliance With Kentucky-Based Health Firm

Over the last few days, Laboratory Corporation of Americas Holdings (NYSE:LH) (popularly known as LabCorp) has been dominating headlines on several strategic developments. Following its extended alliance with Interpace Diagnostics (NASDAQ:IDXG) announced earlier this week, LabCorp has formed of one more joint venture — this time with Appalachian Regional Healthcare.

This multi-year, comprehensive laboratory collaboration will help LabCorp provide high-quality, high-value and standardized laboratory diagnostics to Appalachian Regional Healthcare’s hospital-based labs. Apart from technical services, LabCorp will aid in reference testing for Appalachian Regional Healthcare’s entire network of facilities and clinicians plus make enhanced information technology and data analytics accessible to help improve the delivery of patient care.

This alliance is expected to strengthen LabCorp’s diagnostic testing foothold in Eastern Kentucky and Southern West Virginia.

Progress on Strategic Collaborations

We note that LabCorp has fortified its footprint in the diagnostics space through both organic and inorganic means plus plans to collaborate with the leading companies and academic institutions to build a wider portfolio of tests.

The company continues to increase its scale and competencies in clinical laboratory medicine via acquisitions ranging from routine capabilities to highly esoteric testing. Among its recent alliances, under the new agreement with Interpace Diagnostics, Dianon Pathology — a member of the LabCorp Specialty Testing Group — will perform the thyroid biopsy analysis.

This apart, worth mentioning are the company’s two major health systems partnerships, Mount Sinai Health System and PAML, a market-leading reference and outreach laboratory based in Pacific Northwest. Per LabCorp, these anchor health systems will gradually emerge as research hubs, improving access to trials as well as Covance's site activation and investigator, and patient recruitment capabilities.

Other recent collaborations include a strategic partnership with Thermo Fisher (NYSE:TMO) , through which, the Thermo Fisher Oncomine Dx target panel was launched for non-small cell lung cancer patients. Also, riding on its partnership with drug retailer Walgreens (NASDAQ:WBA) , the company works on developing and operating patient service centers within select Walgreens stores. Besides these, significant is its tie-up with Japan-based Sysmex Corporation, a foremost clinical laboratory services provider and Roche, the world's reputed biotech company.

Share Price Performance

Over the past three months, shares of LabCorp have outperformed its industry. The stock has gained 3.1% against the industry’s 0.1% decline.

LabCorp carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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