UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549
FORM 8-K
CURRENT REPORT
Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange
Act of 1934
June 9, 1999
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(Date of earliest event reported)
LABORATORY CORPORATION OF AMERICA HOLDINGS
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(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
DELAWARE 1-11353 13-3757370
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(State or other (Commission (IRS Employer
jurisdiction of File Number) Identification
incorporation) Number)
358 SOUTH MAIN STREET, BURLINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA 27215
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(Address of principal executive offices)
336-229-1127
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(Registrant's telephone number, including area code)
ITEM 5. OTHER EVENTS
On June 9, 1999, the Company issued a press release
announcing that its clinical trials testing business has
opened a clinical trials testing facility in Mechelen,
Belgium, near Brussels, to serve the global pharmaceutical
industry.
ITEM 7. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS, PRO FORMA FINANCIAL
INFORMATION AND EXHIBITS
(c) Exhibit
20 Press release of the Company dated
June 9, 1999.
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities and Exchange
Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to
be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly
authorized.
LABORATORY CORPORATION OF AMERICA HOLDINGS
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(Registrant)
By:/s/ BRADFORD T. SMITH
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Bradford T. Smith
Executive Vice President,
General Counsel, Secretary
and Compliance Officer
Date: June 25, 1999
Laboratory Corporation of America-Registered Trademark- Holdings
358 South Main Street
Burlington, NC 27215
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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CONTACT: 336-584-5171 SHAREHOLDER DIRECT: 800-LAB-0401
MEDIA - CYNTHIA JAY, EXT. 5052 WWW.LABCORP.COM
INVESTORS - PAMELA SHERRY, EXT. 4855
LABCORP-REGISTERED TRADEMARK- OPENS CLINICAL
TRIALS TESTING LAB IN EUROPE
BURLINGTON, N.C., June 9, 1999 -- The clinical trials testing
business of Laboratory Corporation of America-Registered Trademark-
Holdings (LabCorp; NYSE: LH) has opened a clinical trials testing
facility in Mechelen, Belgium, near Brussels, to serve the global
pharmaceutical industry.
"As a pioneer in viral load testing and a leader in esoteric
and specialty testing, our clinical trials business represents a
tremendous growth opportunity for us," said Thomas Mac Mahon,
LabCorp president and chief executive officer. "We have the
technology and expertise required to measure the effectiveness of
new therapeutic products. These capabilities are an important part
of our disease management strategy."
Scott Neilson, vice president and general manager of the
company's clinical trials business, added, "We must offer global
capabilities to be considered a preferred supplier to the industry.
Given the importance of method consistency to our customers, the
choice was clear to build our own facility and employ systems,
equipment and methodologies consistent with our operations in the U.S."
In addition to serving investigators in Europe, the new
facility will give LabCorp the ability to support clinical trials
in other key markets worldwide. It includes a central laboratory
with international logistics and data management capabilities.
"Significantly, LabCorp is the only central laboratory with
truly global data management capabilities," said Neilson. "Using a
single system setup and global database, we are able to set up a
worldwide study once, assuring absolute method consistency and data
combinability which are of paramount importance to our customers,"
he explained. "Other labs have to set up studies separately for each
continent. This can be inefficient and costly and result in inconsistency
and errors from repeatedly merging separate databases."
The new laboratory will perform many of the tests offered by
LabCorp in North America, including polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
and flow cytometry, and will use the same methodologies and
instrumentation to assure combinability of data. Identical
worldwide quality assurance and quality control measures maintain a
parallel platform.
Through its relationship with Virco, a molecular biology
company based in Belgium, LabCorp will support infectious disease
drug development, offering exclusive HIV and Hepatitis C
phenotyping and genotyping. Other areas will include routine,
esoteric and specialty testing. Analytical chemistry samples will
be batched and stored for shipment to the U.S.
Equipped with high-throughput instrumentation, the facility
will provide full-service support for phase II-IV trials, including
frozen specimen storage with a state-of-the-art database for
pinpointing the location of any specimen anywhere in the world. It
will also provide fast turnaround in servicing phase I studies in
Belgium and surrounding countries.
The new laboratory will meet the licensing and certification
requirements of EN45001 accreditation issued by Beltest, Good
Laboratory Practice (GLP) for human studies, the U.S. Government's
Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA), the College of
American Pathologists (CAP), and ISO 9000 standards.
Based in Raritan, N.J., LabCorp's clinical trials business is
a leading centralized laboratory supporting pharmaceutical,
biotechnology and medical device clinical trials with safety and
efficacy testing, method development and analytical chemistry from
drug discovery through phase IV clinical trials.
Laboratory Corporation of America-Registered Trademark-
Holdings is one of the world's largest clinical laboratory testing
companies, with annual revenues of $1.6 billion in 1998. Eighteen
thousand employees serve more than 100,000 clients, offering more
than 2,000 routine tests and esoteric diagnostic procedures.
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