Labcorp will expand specimen collection kit production at its plant in Belgium to cater for growing demand in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The North Carolina-headquartered services firm announced the plan this week, explaining increased capacity will allow the facility in Mechelen to supply kits to sponsors and CROs in 70 countries. A clinical trial kit provides an investigator with the necessary supplies needed to gather blood work and other samples that are then evaluated as part of the trial.
Upping trial kit capacity will support faster and more convenient clinical trial testing and delivery and provides ordering and turnaround time flexibility for investigators in the EMEA region, according to Labcorp spokesman Christopher Allman-Bradshaw.
Labcorp gained the Mechelen facility when it acquired preclinical testing and trial services provider Covance for $5.6 billion in 2014. The plant is a multiuse facility capable of dry ice production and distribution as well as study and logistics support. Labcorp added capacity for clinical trial test kit production last year. Since then, more than 1.1 million kits have been produced for a range of studies, including research focused on oncology, diabetes, kidney disease and autoimmune conditions.
News of the plant expansion comes just over a month after Labcorp partnered with real-world data tech firm HealthVerity to expand its drug development services business.
According to Labcorp’s first-quarter financial report, drug development services—of which the clinical trial kit business is a part—brought in revenue of $1.46 billion, an increase of 1.5% on the equivalent period last year. Labcorp attributed the increase to a 4.3% expansion of its base business and said that the segment’s backlog—which is an indication of work to come—at the end of the quarter was $15.19 billion, an increase of 8.7% compared to last year.
The firm expects the drug development services segment to convert $4.95 billion of this backlog into revenue in the next 12 months.