Quest Diagnostics biorepository gains international accreditation

Quest Diagnostics (Madison, NJ), a leading provider of laboratory testing and information services to healthcare and research, has announced successful accreditation of its Valencia, CA, biorepository. That facility maintains de-identified tissue, blood and urine specimens, including molecular and genetic material, collected from the United States and internationally for use primarily by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in clinical trials to research and develop new drug treatments.

According to Quest, the CAP program is the first-of-its-kind, peer-based accreditation program developed to improve and standardize quality and consistency in collecting, processing, storing, distributing, and computerizing information for biospecimens while ensuring the quality of human specimens and genetic material. Initiated in 2011, accreditation requires passing CAP inspections of procedures for patient consent and collection of biospecimens, their processing and annotation, and their storage, transport, and distribution.

"Although biospecimens are increasingly used in new drug and companion diagnostic development, a lack of standards to promote quality can jeopardize the reliability of data generated through clinical trials," said Christopher C. Fikry MD, VP, Quest Diagnostics Clinical Trials. "Maintaining the integrity of specimens for molecular and genetic research is particularly important given the fragility of these materials.”