It will be managed by executives from both Quest and Quintiles. The decision by Quest to team with Quintiles comes just a few months after its primary rival, LabCorp, moved to acquire pharmaceutical firm Covance in a deal worth nearly $6 billion. That transaction is expected to push LabCorp in front of Quest in terms of total annual revenue. "We view this arrangement as a capital-efficient means of duplicating some of the strategic merits behind the LabCorp/Covance combination, although clearly a joint venture structure is less direct than an outright acquisition," said Ross Muken and Michael Cherny, analysts with EverCore ISI, in a recent report. "So both companies must ensure that goals are fully aligned in order […]