WEBVTT - Quest Diagnostics CEO Jim Davis

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<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news talk us through the

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<v Speaker 1>main growth drivers that you see when you take a

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<v Speaker 1>look over the course of this year.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, first, Katie, thanks for having us on this morning.

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<v Speaker 2>You know, in terms of the growth drivers, we really

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<v Speaker 2>think there's two or three major things going on. One, unfortunately,

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<v Speaker 2>is still all of the chronic care disease management that's

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<v Speaker 2>occurring in the country. You know, type two diabetes at

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<v Speaker 2>an all time high, autoimmune disorders, cancer rates, younger and

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<v Speaker 2>younger patients being diagnosed with cancer, colon cancer in particular.

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<v Speaker 2>So all of this is leading to a lot of

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<v Speaker 2>testing as you can imagine, and helping people diagnose, helping

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<v Speaker 2>people figure out what the right therapy they should select,

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<v Speaker 2>and then actually monitoring the disease. Now at the other

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<v Speaker 2>end of the spectrum, and this is really a more

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<v Speaker 2>recent phenomenon, is all the new testing from a consumer

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<v Speaker 2>health standpoint, So you know, prevention is all about doing

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<v Speaker 2>something before the symptoms set in, and between our own

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<v Speaker 2>consumer health offering and then partnerships that we've developed in

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<v Speaker 2>the industry, we are really powering the wellness industry today.

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<v Speaker 2>So our relationships with Function Health, our relationships with WOOP,

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<v Speaker 2>with Aura, we're trying to make lab testing ubiquitous to consumers,

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<v Speaker 2>especially those that really have a focus on prevention and wellness.

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<v Speaker 2>But really it's those two things, Katie, that are really

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<v Speaker 2>driving the growth.

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<v Speaker 1>Well, I'm glad you brought up consumer health and some

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<v Speaker 1>of the partnerships you have Loop and AURA being some

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<v Speaker 1>of them. You also have partnerships with HYMNS and Function Health.

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<v Speaker 1>I see as well. How do you see that part

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<v Speaker 1>of the business evolving. How meaningful of a growth driver

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<v Speaker 1>can that be?

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, So to put all of that in context, between

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<v Speaker 2>our own direct business, our own consumer direct business, plus

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<v Speaker 2>our partnerships with all those that you mentioned, it's about

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<v Speaker 2>a two hundred and fifty million dollars segment and you know,

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<v Speaker 2>we did eleven billion dollars last year, so it's meaningful.

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<v Speaker 2>What's more meaningful is that segment grew it over thirty

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<v Speaker 2>percent last year, and we expect it to continue to grow,

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<v Speaker 2>you know, you know, north of twenty percent this year.

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<v Speaker 2>And again, what we're seeing is just consumers taking more

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<v Speaker 2>interest in their health. With this notion of let's prevent disease,

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<v Speaker 2>let's try to get in front of that. You know,

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<v Speaker 2>if we look at our business today, about two thirds

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<v Speaker 2>of it is diagnosis of disease, you know, treatment of disease,

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<v Speaker 2>treatment monitoring, and really only a third of our business

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<v Speaker 2>is prevention and wellness, general health and wellness testing. Honestly,

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<v Speaker 2>I hope over the next day decade we can flip that.

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<v Speaker 2>I really hope that we can be two thirds prevention

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<v Speaker 2>and wellness and then a third of chroduct care management.

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<v Speaker 1>When you zoom out a bit, what are you seeing

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<v Speaker 1>in terms of trends when it comes to what types

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<v Speaker 1>of tests are being asked for and ordered.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Alzheimer's Katie is a very very important set of

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<v Speaker 2>tests that we now offer. You know, before blood based

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<v Speaker 2>biomarkers came to fruition with respect to Alzheimer's really the

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<v Speaker 2>gold standard where cognitive tests that physicians perform and then

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<v Speaker 2>they would move that patient directly into imaging, whether that's

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<v Speaker 2>a pet CT image or an MRI image. And today

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<v Speaker 2>what we're seeing is there's blood based biomarkers for amyloid

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<v Speaker 2>pop plaque, for what we call these TAO bundles, and

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<v Speaker 2>you're actually going to detect Alzheimer's at a much earlier

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<v Speaker 2>stage than what you would see in imaging and some

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<v Speaker 2>of the new therapies that have been brought to market

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<v Speaker 2>by Eastside and by Lilly. These therapies generally work really

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<v Speaker 2>really well at the earliest stages of disease on set.

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<v Speaker 2>So these biomarkers are playing a very very important role today.

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<v Speaker 2>We position these blood based tests with primary care physicians

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<v Speaker 2>as well as neurologists. You know today, if you have

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<v Speaker 2>symptoms of Alzheimer's it can take upwards of six to

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<v Speaker 2>eight months to get in to see a memory care specialist,

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<v Speaker 2>and patients just don't want to wait that long because again,

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<v Speaker 2>there's therapies available if you are diagnosed.

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<v Speaker 1>Because you think about what's going on at some of

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<v Speaker 1>your peer diagnostics companies. Oncology testing has been driving just

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<v Speaker 1>rapid growth. So how does Quest position itself in that space.

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<v Speaker 1>I know that you recently bought Haystack Oncology, for example,

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<v Speaker 1>but is that an area where you would consider additional deals?

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, first, Katie, it's a very very important part of

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<v Speaker 2>our business today. Most people don't know, but Quest Diagnostics

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<v Speaker 2>has a very large anatomical pathology business. Anatomical pathology is

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<v Speaker 2>when specimens are cut outside cut from the human body.

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<v Speaker 2>They're tissue samples, and so we have a very We

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<v Speaker 2>have the largest anatomical pathology business in the country where

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<v Speaker 2>we make diagnoses of cancer every single day. Now, once

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<v Speaker 2>you have that tumor specimen, there's several follow on tests

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<v Speaker 2>that are very important. The first being what type of

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<v Speaker 2>therapy should be used to treat that cancer after treatment

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<v Speaker 2>or potentially right after surgery. The next question is did

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<v Speaker 2>the surgeon get it all or did the chemotherapy eradicate

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<v Speaker 2>that disease? And we have a task you mentioned, the

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<v Speaker 2>Haystack minimally residual disease testing that looks for very very

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<v Speaker 2>small remnants of the cancer that may remain either post

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<v Speaker 2>surgery or post chemotherapy. So it's a growing portion of

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<v Speaker 2>our portfolio of testing today. Now, in addition, we offer

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<v Speaker 2>a lot of routine cancer tests PSA screening all sorts

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<v Speaker 2>of different types of cancer markers at the screening phase.

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<v Speaker 2>So all told, cancer of our eleven billion dollar portfolio today,

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<v Speaker 2>cancer in its entirety is about a billion dollars of

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<v Speaker 2>our portfolio.