Labcorp Drug Development
A New Realm in Drug Development

Be it the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, or medical device industry, a contract research organization (CRO) has emerged as a key player in clinical research. Being a central contact point between the sponsor and other trial actors such as ethics committees, regulatory agencies, vendors, and hospitals, a CRO plans, coordinates, executes, and supervises the processes to develop a clinical trial. CROs help sponsors reduce their workload, and at the same time, ensure trial quality and compliance with national and international standards. Most CROs also provide innovative technological tools to increase efficiency and reduce costs.

Enter Labcorp Drug Development. The company is a leading CRO offering comprehensive drug development solutions for several industries. The company’s services cover the preclinical, clinical, and post-market phases of drug development and the product life cycles for medical device and diagnostics. The services are paired with regulatory support for the chemical testing and crop protection industries. Labcorp has established itself as a global leader in nonclinical safety assessment, clinical trial management, and clinical trial testing services. Adam Schechter, the Chairman and CEO of Labcorp, states, “We are positioning Labcorp to play an important role in the future of global health care through science and innovation, while delivering strong returns for our shareholders.”

Labcorp supports clinical trial programs during any or every phase of the drug development continuum. The company is always ready to handhold the customers and act as their go-to source for insights and answers when navigating all the phases of discovery, development, commercialization, and beyond. Labcorp’s experienced global team brings together a network of more than 175,000 clinical investigators, expertise in over 20 therapeutic areas. In addition to this, the company delivers effective volunteer and patient recruitment and retention programs to customers, thereby allowing them to make clear and confident decisions.

Labcorp is constantly exploring new ways to enhance scientific expertise and anticipate lab testing needs. At the same time, the company is searching for new paths to manage data by incorporating artificial intelligence approaches. Labcorp teams have developed algorithms to interpret and correlate results across multiple formats to evaluate the optimal structure and architecture to enable a data-driven drug development process. The company’s scientific insights across drug development and diagnostics are driving interconnectivity to approach clients’ challenges from several different perspectives. This allows Labcorp to be more client-driven and deliver what its clients need to succeed in their programs.

Steering ahead, Labcorp plans to open a dedicated, state-of-the-art companion diagnostics (CDx) laboratory in Morrisville, North Carolina, to prepare for the increasing scientific complexity and meet anticipated client demand. The new lab space will be a part of a multi-use facility that includes genomics and molecular pathology laboratories to facilitate clinical trials and companion diagnostic assay development. At the same time, the facility includes a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) laboratory that houses the first NMR spectrometer to identify and quantify concentrations of lipoproteins and small molecule metabolites. Also, manufacturing facilities for diagnostics materials and testing components are located on the same site.

“At the core of our ability to innovate and meet customer and patient needs is the diverse talent that we have across all of Labcorp. To that end, we will continue to invest in our employees. I am grateful for my colleagues at Labcorp who play such a critical role in delivering on our mission—through our continued fight against COVID-19 and in providing our patients and customers with the answers they need to make clear, confident health care decisions,” concludes Schechter.