For a look inside the offerings, operations, and objectives of diagnostic laboratories, AVMA News spoke with representatives of state laboratories as well as commercial laboratories. This is the third article in our four-part series.
Small to midsize commercial diagnostic laboratories offer alternatives
In Miami, National Bio Vet Laboratories set up shop three decades ago and now serves the East Coast, Caribbean, and Central America. Dallas-based Ellie Diagnostics is an independent enterprise that just opened its flagship laboratory in Louisville, Kentucky. The drugmaker Zoetis recently acquired three regional laboratories to form a new national network.
While Antech Diagnostics and Idexx Laboratories may be the biggest names among commercial veterinary diagnostic laboratories, small to midsize laboratories across the country continue to offer alternatives for veterinary practices.
Christopher Chow, NBVL president, said his father, Richard Chow, started the company in 1990. Richard Chow was a laboratory manager at a human hospital, and he saw a need for veterinary diagnostic services. So he brought together the know-how, equipment, and entrepreneurial spirit to start the company. Christopher Chow came back into the fold after spending 10 years in computer engineering.
NBVL has its main laboratory in Miami and another laboratory near Orlando, Florida, but the company reaches all of North America through commercial carriers. Courier services are available for twice-a-day pickup in central and South Florida and same-day turnaround times.
The company has about 50 team members, including in-house veterinary pathologists, who provide a full range of diagnostic services for cats and dogs along with horses, birds, and reptiles. NBVL does most of its business in Florida and the Caribbean.
Chow said: “Our specialty is that we’re independent. We are contract free. We care about your data privacy.”
He said the work is difficult, but NBVL is established and doing well. The goals are to take care of existing clients while acquiring new ones, which helps keep prices low.
Mark DeCourcy, founder and CEO of Ellie, has a background in human diagnostics. The motivation to create a veterinary laboratory started when he and his fiancée took their dog, Ellie, to the veterinarian. They expected to receive the laboratory report but didn’t.
DeCourcy dug into the veterinary diagnostic industry and learned that most veterinarians have long contracts with laboratories, often with one of the two big players. He eventually got Ellie’s laboratory report, but it was difficult to understand.
He decided to add to the veterinary industry a new diagnostic laboratory that did not require long-term contracts and provided a new kind of laboratory report that veterinarians can use to engage pet owners.
Ellie’s laboratory report, called a Wellie Report, is designed for pet owners following a pet wellness visit. The report assigns a score of 1 to 100 for the pet’s overall health and a green, yellow, or red light for various body functions.
As a pet owner, DeCourcy said, “If I get a little one-page report with a bunch of green lights on it that says, hey, everything’s great—the liver’s good, the kidney’s good, the heart’s good—and I got a 97, I’m excited, right? That’s fantastic, and I want to maintain that 97. I want to keep those lights green.”
DeCourcy started Ellie Diagnostics in January 2019 with a handful of people in Dallas. Over the next year or so, the company grew to have clients in every state. Ellie launched its flagship laboratory in August in Louisville, Kentucky. The goal is to have 20 laboratories by 2025. Most of the patients are cats and dogs, but the company is adding equine services as a core segment.
Zoetis Reference Laboratories brings together three regional laboratories to form a national network providing diagnostics mostly for pets.
In October 2019, Zoetis acquired Phoenix Lab, which served veterinary practices in 20 states but primarily in the Pacific Northwest. In November 2019, Zoetis acquired ZNLabs, which had a hub laboratory in Louisville and other laboratories in Boise, Idaho; Chicago; Cincinnati; Dallas; New Orleans, and Salt Lake City. In February 2020, Zoetis acquired Ethos Diagnostic Science, which was a business unit of Ethos Veterinary Health and had laboratories in Boston, Denver, and San Diego.
David Holmblad, head of U.S. reference laboratories for Zoetis, said the focus in 2020 was on making the three laboratories into one entity. In 2021, the focus was on further integrating the laboratories together and aligning with Zoetis. This year’s focus is on commercialization and expansion.
Zoetis has its roots as a pharmaceutical company and provides medicines and vaccines for prevention and treatment, Holmblad said. What wasn’t there was detection. Getting into diagnostics expands the company’s relationship with customers.
“Very frankly, the diagnostics business is a fast-growing market,” Holmblad said. “People love their pets, and they take actions to improve their health and well-being.”
Rounding out its diagnostics portfolio, Zoetis got into point-of-care diagnostics in 2018 with the acquisition of Abaxis and recently launched the new ZoetisDx portal that allows veterinarians to see all their Zoetis diagnostic results from both their clinic and the reference laboratory.
In June, Zoetis acquired Basepaws, which provides pet genetic and oral microbiome testing. The latest acquisition adds prediction capabilities to the Zoetis offerings for prevention, detection, and treatment. On July 28, ahead of AVMA Convention 2022, Basepaws announced a portfolio for veterinary professionals to provide screening tools for disease risk, available through distributor MWI Animal Health.