Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

Quest Diagnostics Wins Contract From CDC to Assess US Hepatitis C Burden

NEW YORK — Quest Diagnostics said Thursday that it has been awarded a contract from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to assess the burden of hepatitis C virus in the US.

Under the agreement, Quest will perform HCV antibody testing and molecular RNA testing on de-identified remnant specimens randomly selected from clinical test specimens.

Financial and other terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Quest won the multiyear contract following a competitive bidding process. It extends previous collaborations between the company and the CDC to measure hepatitis C burden, including an agreement made by the organizations in 2013 to jointly analyze de-identified hepatitis C testing data from individuals born between 1945 and 1965. Since 2012, Quest has provided the CDC with de-identified laboratory results for hepatitis A, B, C, and E.

In June 2023, the CDC published a report based on Quest Diagnostics Health Trends data that found only one in three adults with evidence of hepatitis C viral infection have achieved viral clearance, despite the availability of curative therapies.

"The longstanding collaboration between Quest and the CDC shows the power of strategic public-private collaborations to inform public health strategy in critical health areas," Harvey Kaufman, medical director and head of the Quest Diagnostics Health Trends research program, said in a statement. "Our prior work together with the CDC has shown substantial opportunity to improve care and treatment for individuals with hepatitis C, and we expect this additional research collaboration to build on that progress, informing public policy to reduce the incidence of hepatitis C in the United States."