Quest inks deal to buy Boyce and Bynum lab business

A major Columbia-based medical lab business is being purchased by a publicly traded company.

Quest Diagnostics said Tuesday via news release that it had signed an agreement to acquire Boyce and Bynum Pathological Laboratories’ assets and clinical laboratory business.

Boyce and Bynum’s anatomic pathology division, Boyce and Bynum Pathology Professional Services, Inc., and the company’s long-term care division are not part of the deal, Quest said in the release. Boyce and Bynum’s professional services arm will through a separate agreement become the exclusive pathology provider for Quest, according to the release.

The acquisition is expected in the first quarter of 2019. Quest did not reveal the terms of the transaction.

“This relationship will extend our ability to provide the most innovative, cost-efficient services to patients and providers in the nation’s heartland, deepening our presence in the region,” Steve Rusckowski, Quest chairman, president and CEO, said in the news release.

Quest has more than 45,000 employees nationwide. It wasn’t immediately clear how many employees work for Boyce and Bynum or whether any of them will be affected by the purchase. The company has locations in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, including several in mid-Missouri.

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