6 ms·

Anyone know if that $119 at cost? LabCorp is going to make a killing of this crisis...

malandrew 7y ago
Maybe, maybe not. Their other tests have almost no demand right now due to coronavirus. How much of a killing they make will depend on which tests have better margins.
- hbosch 7y ago
  I believe LabCorp's Men's Health Test is relatively popular amongst guys looking to check their testosterone levels. The results can be taken to a "men's health physician", or a "bio-identical hormone physician", or whatever else they are called and used to justify legal hormone therapies (typically testosterone injections and/or estrogen-blockers). Common for bodybuilders, or even just dudes closing in on 60 who want to stay good at golf.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
stronglikedan 7y ago
Likely not "at cost", since a for-profit company should be expected to be making a profit, but probably close, considering the herculean effort to get these things to market, despite the red tape.
- three_seagrass 7y ago
  The Labcorp Pixel covid kit is a mail-in sample swap for a PCR test. The variable cost is magnitudes lower than $119.
  - James_Henry 7y ago
    There is also the variable cost of the technician needed to run the machine, no?
    - three_seagrass 7y ago
      Lab techs will spend at maximum a couple minutes on each test, if they are manually preparing and pipetting samples, as the majority of the test is automated on a PCR thermocycler. At $30/hr that's $1/test in labor at most. Edit: This isn't a total cost analysis, just labor like the person asked.
      - anon102010 7y ago
        What a pathetic analysis. This price includes Fedex shipping both ways, mail handling and controls (which are CRITICAL for this type of testing), R&D, validation, hoopjumping for the FDA and much more (buildings, accounting, payroll, HR, PR, attrys). This is a very low price. Plenty of business would be $150/test TODAY to test huge numbers of employees, and $250/test TODAY to test employees they were worried might be sick. Someone comes in with a fever, have them do this fedex test, 3-4 days later they could be a back at work if negative.
        jdc 7y ago
        When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
        qotgalaxy 7y ago
        A policy that encourages gaslighting.
        three_seagrass 7y ago
        They asked about labor variable costs specifically, so please read the rest of the comments for context before rushing to break HN guidelines.
  - foota 7y ago
    Right, but isn't there capital costs associated with being able to run them?
    - rjzzleep 7y ago
      You realize that the only reason this kit is so expensive is because the FDA previously shut down a bunch of at home testing companies products right? In case people forgot the first step of the FDA was to shut down at home testing. Then they fast tracked Roche and Thermo Fischer. Now a month later they approve an expensive at home testing kit. You take your own conclusions of this behaviour. https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/23/updated-fda-covid-19-testing-guidelines-specifically-disallows-at-home-sample-colllection/ https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/23/updated-fda-covid-19-testi...
      - entee 7y ago
        Note that most of the initial tests required a nasopharyngeal swab which has to go back into your nose several inches. I'm not surprised that the FDA doubts that people would be able to do that reliably on their own given that even trained people seem to get it wrong a lot (1). The LabCorp test uses a swab that doesn't go anywhere near as deep (2). For a test kit to be widely distributed, you need to have it be drop dead simple to run perfectly. Given all this, I'm not sure we should jump to corruption as the reason this is the first at-home test. 1.) https://slate.com/technology/2020/04/coronavirus-testing-false-negatives.html https://slate.com/technology/2020/04/coronavirus-testing-fal... 2.) https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/labcorp-s-at-home-coronavirus-testing-kit-authorized-by-fda https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/labcorp-s-at-home-coro...
gniv 7y ago
As another comparison point, Switzerland govt said the insurance companies will pay CHF 180 for a test. https://www.admin.ch/gov/de/start/dokumentation/medienmitteilungen.msg-id-78335.html https://www.admin.ch/gov/de/start/dokumentation/medienmittei...
- tedmiston 7y ago
  For the curious: CHF 180 ~= $186 USD

Maybe, maybe not. Their other tests have almost no demand right now due to coronavirus. How much of a killing they make will depend on which tests have better margins.

hbosch 7y ago
I believe LabCorp's Men's Health Test is relatively popular amongst guys looking to check their testosterone levels. The results can be taken to a "men's health physician", or a "bio-identical hormone physician", or whatever else they are called and used to justify legal hormone therapies (typically testosterone injections and/or estrogen-blockers). Common for bodybuilders, or even just dudes closing in on 60 who want to stay good at golf.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

stronglikedan 7y ago

Likely not "at cost", since a for-profit company should be expected to be making a profit, but probably close, considering the herculean effort to get these things to market, despite the red tape.

three_seagrass 7y ago
The Labcorp Pixel covid kit is a mail-in sample swap for a PCR test. The variable cost is magnitudes lower than $119.
- James_Henry 7y ago
  There is also the variable cost of the technician needed to run the machine, no?
  - three_seagrass 7y ago
    Lab techs will spend at maximum a couple minutes on each test, if they are manually preparing and pipetting samples, as the majority of the test is automated on a PCR thermocycler. At $30/hr that's $1/test in labor at most. Edit: This isn't a total cost analysis, just labor like the person asked.
    - anon102010 7y ago
      What a pathetic analysis. This price includes Fedex shipping both ways, mail handling and controls (which are CRITICAL for this type of testing), R&D, validation, hoopjumping for the FDA and much more (buildings, accounting, payroll, HR, PR, attrys). This is a very low price. Plenty of business would be $150/test TODAY to test huge numbers of employees, and $250/test TODAY to test employees they were worried might be sick. Someone comes in with a fever, have them do this fedex test, 3-4 days later they could be a back at work if negative.
      - jdc 7y ago
        When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
        qotgalaxy 7y ago
        A policy that encourages gaslighting.
      - three_seagrass 7y ago
        They asked about labor variable costs specifically, so please read the rest of the comments for context before rushing to break HN guidelines.
- foota 7y ago
  Right, but isn't there capital costs associated with being able to run them?
  - rjzzleep 7y ago
    You realize that the only reason this kit is so expensive is because the FDA previously shut down a bunch of at home testing companies products right? In case people forgot the first step of the FDA was to shut down at home testing. Then they fast tracked Roche and Thermo Fischer. Now a month later they approve an expensive at home testing kit. You take your own conclusions of this behaviour. https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/23/updated-fda-covid-19-testing-guidelines-specifically-disallows-at-home-sample-colllection/ https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/23/updated-fda-covid-19-testi...
    - entee 7y ago
      Note that most of the initial tests required a nasopharyngeal swab which has to go back into your nose several inches. I'm not surprised that the FDA doubts that people would be able to do that reliably on their own given that even trained people seem to get it wrong a lot (1). The LabCorp test uses a swab that doesn't go anywhere near as deep (2). For a test kit to be widely distributed, you need to have it be drop dead simple to run perfectly. Given all this, I'm not sure we should jump to corruption as the reason this is the first at-home test. 1.) https://slate.com/technology/2020/04/coronavirus-testing-false-negatives.html https://slate.com/technology/2020/04/coronavirus-testing-fal... 2.) https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/labcorp-s-at-home-coronavirus-testing-kit-authorized-by-fda https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/labcorp-s-at-home-coro...

gniv 7y ago

As another comparison point, Switzerland govt said the insurance companies will pay CHF 180 for a test. https://www.admin.ch/gov/de/start/dokumentation/medienmitteilungen.msg-id-78335.html https://www.admin.ch/gov/de/start/dokumentation/medienmittei...

tedmiston 7y ago
For the curious: CHF 180 ~= $186 USD