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Labcorp is a healthcare company that runs medical testing labs and helps drug companies test new medicines.
Labcorp is one of the biggest medical testing companies in the world. When your doctor orders a blood test, a urine test, or a biopsy, there's a good chance the sample ends up in a Labcorp lab. The company runs a huge network of testing facilities across the United States and processes millions of patient samples every year, then sends the results back to doctors who use them to diagnose illness, track treatment, and catch problems early. It also handles testing for hospitals and health systems that don't want to run their own labs.
The second big piece of Labcorp is called Central Laboratory Services, or drug development. This is easy to miss, but it's a serious business. When Pfizer or Eli Lilly runs a clinical trial for a new drug, they need a central lab to analyze blood and tissue samples from patients all over the world in a consistent, standardized way. Labcorp is one of the few companies with the global network to do this at scale. So it earns money from both sides of healthcare: testing for patients today and testing for the medicines of tomorrow. The core testing business is a scale game. Running a lab is expensive, but once you have thousands of collection sites and huge volumes, the cost per test drops. That's why Labcorp and its main rival Quest Diagnostics dominate the market. Labcorp has spent years buying up smaller labs and specialty testing companies to widen its menu of tests, especially in fast-growing areas like oncology and genetics, where tests are more complex and command higher prices.
In 1969, Dr. James B. Powell and his brothers started Biomedical Laboratories in Burlington, North Carolina. The idea came from Powell's time as a Duke medical student: most labs made doctors and patients wait up to two weeks for results, which delayed treatment. His young company promised fast, modern testing with results back within a day, even in rural areas. That simple promise, speed when it mattered, was the seed of everything that followed.
By the early 1980s, the little Burlington lab had caught the eye of a giant. Hoffman-La Roche bought Biomedical Reference Laboratories and folded its lab companies into one national network called Roche Biomedical Laboratories, with the Burlington site at its core. The company now had a multinational parent and reach far beyond North Carolina.
In 1995, National Health Laboratories Holdings merged with Roche Biomedical and took a new name: Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings. The combined company became the largest blood-testing business in the United States, with revenue of about $1.7 billion. Roche kept a big ownership stake, and the headquarters settled in Burlington. A startup founded by one family now sat at the top of its industry.
Then came a hard lesson. In 2002, LabCorp warned that it was losing routine testing volume from independent doctors, and the stock fell more than a third in a single day. Local and regional labs had been winning that business, and insiders had sold shares before the bad news came out. Being the biggest did not mean being safe.
More than a decade later, LabCorp made its boldest bet yet. In 2015 it bought Covance, a drug development company, for $6.1 billion. The deal was called transformational because it pushed LabCorp beyond diagnostic testing into contract research, the business of running trials for drugmakers. That opened a new path for global growth.
In 2019, Adam H. Schechter became CEO, only the fourth in the company's first 50 years. The handover came as LabCorp marked its 50th anniversary, doing business in more than 100 countries with revenue above $11 billion the year before. A small lab had become a global company, and a new leader was about to face a very unusual test.
That test arrived in 2020. During the pandemic, LabCorp became one of the major developers and processors of COVID-19 tests, winning emergency authorization in March. By April it had the first test with at-home sample collection, and by July it was processing 165,000 tests a day. The company's response became one of its proudest moments, and it showed how much a testing network could matter to the world.
In 2023, LabCorp separated its clinical development business into a standalone company called Fortrea. The spin-off left LabCorp focused on what it knew best: diagnostics and laboratory services for biopharma companies. After years of adding businesses, this was a move to simplify.
A year later, LabCorp restructured itself under a new holding company, Labcorp Holdings Inc. The change was meant to better reflect how the company actually operated and to line up more closely with its brand. Same business, cleaner structure.
Also in 2024, LabCorp bought Invitae, a pioneer in genetic testing, out of bankruptcy for $239 million. Invitae's tests fit neatly with LabCorp's specialty testing and cancer business, adding about $120 million in revenue that year. It was a reminder that one company's collapse can be another's opportunity.
By 2026, the strategy was paying off: revenue grew 7% in the third quarter and adjusted earnings per share rose 14.5%, prompting the company to raise its full-year guidance. LabCorp added new tests for melanoma, Alzheimer's and hepatitis D, and bought or struck deals for several other testing businesses. CEO Adam Schechter said the company was well positioned to ride personalized medicine and changing consumer expectations. Half a century after a medical student's idea about faster results, the company was still selling speed and insight, just on a much bigger stage.
Labcorp was spun off from the old Laboratory Corporation of America, and in 2024 it separated its clinical trials business into a new public company called Fortrea. That move let Labcorp focus on its core testing operation. The company generates steady cash flow, pays a small dividend, and buys back shares. Its biggest risks are straightforward: reimbursement pressure from insurers and Medicare, and the constant need to keep prices and costs in balance as testing volumes grow.
Saved answer · last researched 2 Nov 2026