Interview Transcript

Linda:
Here we are at BIOCHINA 2026. I'm with Julia and Jeff. Would you please introduce yourself shortly?

Julia:
Yes, of course. My name is Julia Tarasenko, I'm Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer here at LabConnect.

Jeff:
And I'm Jeff Mayhew. I am the Chief Development Officer and one of the co-founders of LabConnect.

Linda:
Jeff, you founded LabConnect more than two decades ago. Could you share a little bit of the story?

Jeff:
Yeah, we started LabConnect in 2002 and our plan was to kind of reimagine the way that central laboratory services were delivered. You know, what we set out to do was to form alliances with leading clinical laboratories around the globe who could cover certain regions for us, as well as leading specialty labs that could provide the more esoteric analysis. Then we wanted to combine that with best in class services. We wanted to be the best at project management. We wanted to be the best at sample tracking. We wanted to be the best in logistics. Because we felt like these were areas where things really went wrong in clinical trials. And we've been successful at this and it's really helped us to grow.

Linda:
You have a big news. So congratulations on the opening of your new office in Wuxi in China. And what does this milestone mean for LabConnect's strategy in APAC?

Jeff:
For LabConnect, our goal in APAC is to be close to where the sites are. You know, we have our current location in Melbourne, Australia, we have a location now in Wuxi, China, and we have longstanding partnerships in Korea and Japan.

We intend to build upon those partnerships as well over the course of the next two years. With really, again, our goal being close to where the sites are so that we reduce turnaround time for our logistics as well as costs.

Linda:
You just mentioned about logistics and LabConnect seems to put a strong emphasis on logistics and real-time data and monitoring. Why are these becoming so important in clinical trials?

Julia:
I mean, as clinical trials get more complex, the way that you orchestrate the movement of the samples all over the world, it becomes an art form. So we have been very good at this for a very long time. And with LabConnect introduced the sample tracking technology from the very beginning, from day one that the company was founded.

And what we have done is invested heavily over the past 12 months to really digitize ourselves, our operation, our sample tracking, and feed all of the data that we have. And we receive from our courier partner through our control center. We're building a state of the art control center in our Tennessee location. And from there on, we will know essentially where our samples are at all times.

Linda:
What are our sponsors expecting from central lab partners today that they may not have expected maybe more than five years ago?

Jeff:
Yeah, yeah, I think it's really changed over the last decade or so. Clinical trials today are far more complex, both analytically and logistically. 10 years ago, most of the testing could be done within one laboratory and many trials were within one region. Neither one of those things is true today.

High percentage of trials take place in multiple regions around the globe. And you have to be able to work with many different types of specialty labs. And often the sponsors will come to you with multiple specialty labs that they want you to work with for their trial.

And so at LabConnect, we understand that that's really kind of core to our business model. And we understand that today's trials are more about orchestration. It's not less about the routine testing but how you can orchestrate all these services on a global basis.

Linda:
You now have a growing footprint in APAC, including Australia and China. How do you see Asia supporting LabConnect's global clinical trial operations going forward?

Julia:
I mean, in our experience, most of the global trials are now into Asia. And this region's becoming increasingly important. I mean, we're now here for that very reason. I mean, China alone is a 5% of global central lab market which is now estimated to be $4 billion in size.

So again, for us here to be critical, having our staff here, our operations here is critical. And we will continue to invest in this region.

Linda:
Jeff and Julia, thank you so much for your time today.

Julia:
Thank you.

Jeff:
You're welcome. Thank you.