Lab

A Merck lab worker in Pennsylvania found five vials labeled "smallpox" in a lab freezer, according to a Nov. 18 New York Times report. The worker was masked and gloved.

Northfield, Ill.-based Medline, the largest private medical supply manufacturer and distributor in the U.S., landed a $5 million deal with Edinburg, Texas-based DHR Health, the company said in a Nov. 16 news release.

HHS is withdrawing a 2020 policy that limited the FDA's review process of certain lab tests, including some COVID-19 tests, the agency said Nov. 15.

Cancer-focused genetic testing services firm NeoGenomics, based in Fort Myers, Fla., has named Singular Genomics President and COO Dave Daly to its board, according to a Nov. 14 Business Observer report.

Leonel Palatnik, 42, co-owner of Dallas-based Panda Conservation Group, a medical lab company, was sentenced to 82 months in prison for his role in a $73 million Medicare kickback scheme, according to a Nov. 9 Justice Department news release.

A now-closed New Jersey lab could have to pay hundreds of patients back for allegedly selling and administering fake COVID-19 tests, according to a Nov. 9 report by NBC affiliate WNBC.

An internal audit found that the University of Iowa's State Hygienic Laboratory left as much as $1.1 million on the table, thanks to inconsistent billing and document collection, according to a Nov. 8 report in The Gazette.

An Arkansas man who owned and managed several diagnostic testing laboratories was indicted in an alleged $100 million fraudulent billing scheme, the Justice Department said Nov. 3. 

A joint venture between Los Angeles-based real estate firm Hatchspaces and Denver-based healthcare developer NexCore Group is building a life sciences wet lab in West Los Angeles, the companies said in a Nov. 3 news release.

The American Society for Clinical Pathology and the Joint Commission are kicking off a lab recognition program, the organizations said in an Oct. 27 news release.