Maybe the tough financial environment here in the United States is causing Sonic Healthcare Ltd., one of this nation’s bigger lab players, to be more interested in overseas lab testing opportunities. On February 18, its CEO, Colin Goldschmidt, M.D., told investors that “We continue to seek out synergistic [laboratory] acquisitions and we believe that Germany is probably our most suitable and fruitful market.” Sonic spent €76 million (US$104 million) in December to acquire the German lab business of Labco S.A. Goldschmidt was speaking during a earnings conference. He also noted that Sonic was gaining market share in Germany and winning new hospital contracts for lab testing in that country.
MORE ON: Sonic
Based in Sydney, Australia, Sonic Healthcare has more than $800 million of laboratory business here in the United States. In reporting its latest earnings for the six months ending December 31, 2014, Sonic said statutory revenue had increased 11.9%. Revenue grew 12% in its U.S. lab operations and 24% in its German lab operations, compared to the first six months of its prior financial year.
TRANSITIONS
- Quest Diagnostics Incorporated announced that Lidia L. Fonseca will become the company’s Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, effective April 2, 2014. Previously, Fonseca was the CIO at Laboratory Corporation of America and held an executive position at Philips Medical Systems.
- Kevin Watson was named as the Director, Reimbursement-Managed Care for Rosetta Genomics of Princeton, New Jersey. He has held positions at bioTheranostics, Becton Dickinson, TriPath Imaging, Laboratory Corporation of America, Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, and Aetna.
- Gregory Clark, Ph.D., is the new Vice President of National esoteric Reference Laboratory Services for PAML, LLC, of Spokane, Washington. Prior to joining PAML, Clark served at Baylor Healthcare System, Westcliff Medical Laboratories, Oregon Medical Laboratories, Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, and Unilab Corporation.
- OPKO Health, Inc., of Miami, Florida appointed Greg Stanley as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for its global diagnostics business. Stanley was previously employed by Oncimmune USA, Roche Diagnostics, Abbott Laboratories, Chiron, and Radiometer.
Dark Daily Update
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. . .the chip-based liquid biopsy” device developed by researchers at Harvard University. For about $1 per test, it enables point-of-care monitoring of the progress of patients undergoing treatment for certain types of cancers.
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