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10 Laboratory Corporation of America® Holdings 2007
Personalized Medicine
It has been fewer than 10 years since The
Human Genome Project first released its initial
findings, and already the promise of a more per-
sonalized era of medicine is here – one in which
the value of testing is far more pronounced.
Pharmacogenetics, for instance, utilizes testing
to tailor drug therapy to an optimum level for an
individual, thus avoiding “trial-and-error” meth-
ods and reducing the incidence of adverse drug
reactions. This class of testing has a myriad of
applications, including revolutionizing chemo-
therapy regimens in the treatment of cancer.
Test: Pursue scientific leadership
in testing innovation
A 106 percent increase
in high-margin testing
since 2002
Positive Result
LabCorp’s ability to generate industry-
leading margins has stood the test of
time, in part due to its ability to steadily
increase revenues from an ever-
expanding menu of gene-based and
esoteric tests. Increasingly, this
innovation is emphasizing the use of
companion diagnostics and pharma-
cogenetics, which, in turn, is leading
to a vastly more personalized level
of health care.
A strategic agreement with
Medco Health Solutions, for instance,
is centered on tamoxifen, a drug
commonly used to treat and prevent
certain forms of breast cancer.
Approximately 10 percent of women
using tamoxifen do not fully benefi t
from the drug because of genetic
variations. Genotyping can identify
these variations, allowing for more safe
and effective use of tamoxifen, as
well as enabling patients to pursue
alternative treatments earlier.
Similarly, we have entered into an
exclusive licensing agreement with
Duke University to commercialize
a new blood-based assay for early
detection of lung cancer, which
accounts for the most cancer-related
deaths annually in the U.S. Through
the development of biomarkers to
identify high-risk individuals, this test
will provide physicians with a powerful
diagnostic tool to complement current
imaging technologies. This combination
could improve the rate of early lung
cancer diagnosis, a critical factor in
surviving the disease.
Long a pioneer in the use of
polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
technology and infectious disease
testing, LabCorp has become the fi rst
commercial lab to offer a new, highly
accurate HIV test for diagnostic use.
Developed by Roche, the fully automated,
real-time PCR test quantifi es the amount
of the virus in the blood from very high
to very low levels. As a result, patients
can receive more tailored treatment
regimens in order to better manage
the virus – yet another example of the
personalized medicine of the future
that is here today.