Labcorp To Acquire R&D Provider Covance

Laboratory Corporation of America has agreed to acquire Covance for about $6.1 billion in cash and stock. Covance shareholders will own 15.5% of the combined company. The deal will combine LabCorp’s medical lab testing operations with Covance’s drug development and contract research services business. In addition to supporting clinical trials, Covance conducts nutritional analyses. Combined annual revenues, estimated at $8.4 billion, will come from managed care providers, pharmaceutical companies, commercial customers, governments, and private patients. LabCorp expects to achieve more than $100 million in annual cost savings within three years of closing the deal in early 2015.