NEW YORK (360Dx) – Quest Diagnostics announced after the close of the market Monday that it has signed definitive agreements to acquire two clinical labs based in Lewisville, Texas, and will use those acquisitions to form a precision oncology center of excellence.
The Madison, New Jersey-based clinical lab giant said it will acquire Med Fusion, an integrated, advanced diagnostics laboratory and clinical trials service organization, and Clear Point, core and STAT laboratory testing and services. Clear Point also collaborates with Med Fusion and Pathologists Bio-Medical Laboratories to provide esoteric testing along with anatomic and reference tests.
Financial terms of the agreements were not disclosed, but Quest said it expects to complete the transactions in the third quarter of 2017.
Upon completing the deals, Quest will form the precision oncology center of excellence, with the goal of providing oncologists nationwide with diagnostic services for the detection and management of cancer.
In addition, the new center will become a preferred provider of advanced oncology diagnostics for McKesson's The US Oncology Network, which includes Texas Oncology. The US Oncology Network has more than 400 locations across the US and more than 1,400 independent, community-based physicians. Quest said that among the services it will provide the network are genomic and pathology testing, such as tumor sequencing, which is typically used by oncologists to select and monitor treatment and predict disease progression. It noted that inherited genetic testing, for example, for BRCA screening, will not be part of the preferred provider relationship.
Quest will also serve as a preferred provider of a full range of inpatient and outpatient diagnostic services for 12 hospitals of Baylor Scott & White Health, the largest not-for-profit healthcare system in the state of Texas, in North Texas, an it will have a preferred provider agreement with Pathologists Bio-Medical Laboratories.
"This transaction will not only accelerate Quest's growth in cancer diagnostics, but also holds the promise of improving care for patients with cancer in Texas and the entire United States," Steve Rusckowski, chairman, president and CEO, Quest Diagnostics, said in a statement.
The new oncology-focused center will complement Quest's existing centers of excellence in San Juan Capistrano and Valencia, California; Chantilly, Virginia; and Marlborough, Massachusetts.
The deals are the latest in a string of acquisitions by Quest this year. Those earlier transactions included the acquisitions of PeaceHealth's outreach laboratory services and two outreach labs of Hartford Healthcare.