Acquisition adds Eastern Europe LabConnect presence

Laboratory service provider, LabConnect has announced its intentions to expand into Central and Eastern Europe by adding Synevo Medicover Laboratory Services to its LabConnect network, becoming the first US-based central laboratory to do so.

The addition is LabConnect's third laboratory and second laboratory addition in less than a year strengthening the presence of the region's laboratory industry, which has experienced positive gains in the last five years, due to the cheaper labour costs that has attracted investment from other countries.

The terms of the agreement ensure that LabConnect owns Central and Eastern Europe's largest laboratory services provider, with 23 facilities dotted worldwide more than 650 employees.

"We're currently managing several global projects with Synevo and we're betting that our clients will increasingly seek out Central and Eastern European investigator sites. Sites in the region are well known for their recruitment success combined with high quality and cost-effective research," said Eric Hayashi, LabConnect's president and chief executive officer.

"We're very fortunate to have Central and Eastern Europe's most experienced central laboratory as part of the LabConnect network," he added.

Additional terms of the agreement ensure that LabConnect & Synevo will jointly provide centralised laboratory services for the European continent from laboratories based in Poland and Romania. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

LabConnect are in the midst of an expansion plan, characterised by its choice of acquisition. In 2005 the company added Consolidated Laboratory Services, a California-based laboratory specialising in analytical chemistry, molecular diagnostics, and biostorage services since 1995.

"Joining LabConnect's global network will allow us to rapidly build upon our nearly ten years of clinical trial experience," said Synevo's Clinical Research Director Januz Kabata.

"Through the LabConnect network, we can now provide our clients with integrated global data utilising standardised reference ranges and units of measure," Kabata added.