Brian Sansoucy

As gene therapy and the regulatory environment around it have evolved, we've been able to help clients and sponsors get testing through investigational device or IDE pathways. We've done it on both the neutralizing antibody technology as well as total antibody tests, based on clients’ needs. That's good knowledge to have because the IDE applications are proprietary. There's no database of applications to review. We've got experience that not every group's going to have, and that's where our expertise lies in this really narrow space.

I think the biggest advantage Quest has to offer, particularly within the US, is our network of patient service centers, our transportation logistics. It's one thing to get a test developed; there are a lot of groups and companies that do that. But when you need to run tests on patients spread across the country, and you want your results back in a day or two, how are you going to get that blood drawn? How are you going to get the samples to where they need to be? How are you going to get those results back? That is something that very few companies have any expertise in, and that is something that Quest does every day.

We had a customer come to us looking for a really quick turnaround time on specific results to support a clinical trial. The site for the clinical trial was somewhere that was a little bit more remote. We were able to provide a custom logistics setup where we had one of Quest's flights fly an extra leg on the day these samples were ready. This allowed us to get the sample to our facility in Massachusetts within the quickest turnaround we could so that they could have their trial design work.