Lab

The COVID-19 pandemic brought higher visibility to medical labs and the people who make them run. Becker's Hospital Review has compiled job data for lab technicians and distilled it to the most essential data points.

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.