1. We understand that Advanced
Clinical Laboratory Solutions, Inc. (ACLS) is a rapidly growing laboratory testing
company offering toxicology and pharmacogenetics testing services. What are the
major business philosophies or strategies of ACLS?
I began my career as a pharmacist,
learning about drug dispensing and the challenges patients encountered with
drug interactions, adverse events and drugs that simply did not work for
certain people. In 2011, I set out to build the best laboratory services in the
country. Today, ASCL is a state-of-the-art lab that reflects my mission to
provide the highest quality of testing, expedient delivery of results, and
superior customer service to clients throughout the United States. Our business
philosophy is to stay ahead of innovations in toxicology and pharmacogenomics
as the future of medicine. We remain focused on turning around tests quickly
and accurately, while being affordable and accessible to everyone, physicians
and patients alike. My passion for this business continues to grow – reinforced
by such headlines as the recent story about 33 people who died from overdosing
on synthetic marijuana in Brooklyn, my home territory. This rash of drug
overdoses and spotlight on opioid abuse has underscored our driving strategy to
give communities and individuals greater access to toxicology testing.
2. How will you be positioned to compete
with the large, high-profile lab companies?
Independent clinical laboratories
specializing in clinical toxicology and pharmacogenetics, like ACLS, are the
best option for accessing convenient, high-quality testing services and
accurate, timely test results. In fact, smaller labs are more responsive, and
feature improved scheduling opportunities, faster turnaround of test results,
accurate reporting and more competitive pricing. This could make a vital
difference for individuals in the U.S. and around the world who need addiction
treatment. Laboratory drug testing is critical for supporting clinicians, but
with insurance costs on the rise, many of those suffering from addiction are
unable to get full coverage for lab testing. Given the persistent and evolving
introduction of new and highly dangerous drugs in communities, this kind of
rapid drug testing as a primary prevention, diagnostic and monitoring tool can
identify the presence or absence of drugs of abuse or therapeutic agents in
multiple settings. Making lab testing more affordable and available across
communities is essential for preventing drug abuse – and saving lives –
especially among teens and young adults.
3. Why is toxicology testing becoming so important for both physicians and
their patients?
The staggering statistics tell the
story. Deaths from drug overdoses have risen in nearly every county across the
United States, driven by an epidemic of addiction to prescription painkillers
and heroin. The number of these deaths reached 47,055, a new peak, in 2014. In
fact, the death rate from drug overdoses is climbing much more quickly than
other causes of death. One report found that much of the increase in opioid
dependence occurred since 2011. Patients ages 19 to 35 were most likely to be
diagnosed as opioid-dependent compared to other age groups. As for physicians,
accessible, reliable, and rapid testing enables them to get the information
necessary to achieve the highest quality care and outcomes.
4. We see that you have recently
launched a healthcare advisory board. What was the motivation or inspiration
behind this?
ACLS formed a Business Advisory
Board composed of healthcare luminaries and thought leaders as part of our
commitment to providing convenient, high-quality testing services. These leaders
and influencers share our passion for ending the country’s heroin and opioid
addiction crisis and will help fuel our ongoing efforts. Addiction to opioids
and the use of street drugs, such as the K2, a synthetic marijuana, pose
serious community issues that impact public health and social welfare, but
clearly it is also a severe economic issue that affects everyone. The primary
diagnosis of opioid generates a number of medical services, including office
visits, lab tests and other related treatments. In fact, the number of such
services went from about 217,000 in 2007 to about seven million in 2014. The
Business Advisory Board will help spread this message among payers, healthcare
providers and policymakers, who are well-advised to focus on insurance coverage
that would enable these tests to be performed at smaller laboratory testing
services.
5. As an entrepreneur, what would
you say are the top three priority assets or skill sets needed to be successful
in the global healthcare industry?
First of all, stay focused on
innovation. Personalized medicine will be critical. This means being committed
to finding the most optimal treatment regimen for each patient just by
pinpointing the right drug at the right dose, for the right patient. This ties
into putting the patient first – the second important factor for success in the
healthcare industry. This is essential across every area of healthcare. For
example, our goal is to find the most effective and individualized balance at
which a patient experiences maximum desirable analgesic relief and minimal
undesirable adverse effects. By initiating ongoing innovations for toxicology
testing, labs like ACLS and others can implement more effective outreach,
engagement, treatment, and coordination with the health and mental health
systems and social supports. Third, focus on the highest possible standards.
For instance, ACLS is committed to medical research, quality and expedient
testing that exceeds current standards of clinical toxicology because we want to
do more than the bare minimum. We want to provide clients with the highest
toxicology and clinical testing in the industry, including drug testing of
urine and oral fluids, and pharmacogenetics for personalized prescribing. What
we do matters. How we do it matters even more.
6. WKMJ has readers from over 10
countries globally. Please share your final words or thoughts with our
readers.
I’d like to emphasize the value of
pharmacogenomics testing-- identifying how genes affect a patient’s response to
medication. Genomic differences influence the efficacy of medication and can be
the source of serious drug side-effects and increase the risk of drug-to-drug
interactions. Pharmacogenetic testing is the alternative to one-size-fits-all
drug prescribing, which can lead to potentially serious side effects, treatment
failure and poor patient compliance. Pharmacogenetic testing can also indicate
which patients will be likely to experience adverse events with particular
drugs — another application of particular interest to seniors, who often take
multiple medications. Pharmacogenetic test results show how each medication is
metabolized in the liver, providing each referring physician with a laboratory
analysis of many of the patient’s liver enzymes. Along with the analysis, ACLS
offers a detailed pharmacist’s report that analyzes the patient’s medication
list and notes how it could be altered, based on information provided by the
genomic test. People with certain genotypes have increased risk of life-threatening
bleeds when introduced to the blood thinner warfarin or when dosages are
changed. A dosing algorithm based on the patient’s genotype can potentially
thwart this risk. Research has shown that maintaining steady levels of opioids
contributes to pain relief, but patients metabolize pain medications at
different rates. Slow metabolizers of opioids may sustain dangerously high
levels of opioids in the body, resulting in adverse events. Personalized
knowledge of a patient’s metabolism patterns may assist in dosing. Furthermore,
pharmacogenetic test results may assist pain physicians in demonstrating that a
particular patient requires a higher medication dose to experience pain relief.
For example, for an ultra-rapid metabolizer, typical doses may not control pain
for high metabolizers, who run the risk of being labeled abusers.
Leon Reyfman, M.D., FIPP, RpH
Chief Executive Officer, ACLS
Dr. Reyfman, chief executive
officer, ACLS, is board-certified in Anesthesiology and Pain Management. He
serves as director in Interventional Pain Medicine at Long Island College Hospital
and is assistant clinical professor of Anesthesiology at SUNY Downstate Medical
School. Dr. Reyfman is a member of American Society of Interventional Pain
Physicians, as well as the International Spine Intervention Society. He is
actively involved in pain medicine research and teaching, has given multiple
lectures in the areas of neuropathic pain, cancer pain, approach to diagnosis
and treatment of lower back pain, and has extensive clinical experience and
training in invasive and noninvasive pain management.