[specialp]

I also have worked in the Clinical Laboratory field and the above poster is right. The laboratory business is already very competitive, and unless they have some crazy technological revolution going on this is a lot of hot air. Getting these tests approved by the FDA for diagnostic use is HARD and in addition to have the consumer send in a sample the tests need to be CLIA waived. What that means is that there is an even higher burden to prove the test is not very prone to error.

One thing that is good here is pricing transparency and legislation is moving now in states requiring that lab results have to be delivered from the lab directly to the patient if the patient requests it (New York recently did this). BUT that does not mean you can draw your own blood. You still need to have your blood drawn in the traditional way and sent out to a reference lab. So while direct to patient testing will certainly pan out, I do not see how this hot start up has any advantage over the many very large reference labs out there. With competition over HMO contracts for testing so fierce, testing margins have gone down a lot.

Currently Quest Diagnostics has a market cap of 8.4 billion, and is the largest reference lab in the USA. Valuation of 9.5 billion for a company with no specifics, no actual product and huge risks is absolutely ridiculous.