Is There Really Strength in Numbers? Collaboration and Conflict Amidst Digital Laboratory Vendors
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Written by Alan Stoddart, Managing Editor, Signify Premium Insights – Digital Laboratory
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November was another fascinating month for vendors trying to capitalise on the Digital Pathology, Genomics, Clinical Trials and Real World Data.
One of the months most dramatic moves was Thermo Fisher Scientific ’s $9bn bet on Clario . Thermo Fisher has picked up the clinical trials endpoint data solutions vendor in order to take advantage of its broad range of tools including its electronic clinical outcome assessments solution, as well as its offerings in medical imaging, cardiac solutions, respiratory assessments and wearable data capture technologies, not to mention its large customer base.
This makes sense, but with pharmaceutical vendors’ needs fundamentally shifting, and a changing landscape for CROs, will the acquisition be able to provide Thermo Fisher with the tools to adapt?
Other vendors have also forged ties to better compete in the market. Data platform vendor Datavant has, for instance, joined forces with EHR vendor athenahealth. Together, the companies integrate Datavant ’s clinical data access technology, its managed release of information services and AI-powered quality assurance controls into athenahealth ’s athenaOne EHR solution.
According to the vendors, this will give athenahealth’s customers the opportunity to automate and digitise medical record requests across a range of scenarios and request types, and support continuity of care, but with larger trends in real-world data at play, can the vendors deliver a compelling offering?
The month also saw Korean AI vendor Lunit enter into a partnership with laboratory services provider Labcorp. The collaboration is focused on accelerating innovation in digital pathology and AI, and its utilisation for oncology research and clinical care.
Under the partnership, Labcorp ’s laboratory expertise will be put to work alongside Lunit ’s AI solutions in a bid to transform how tumour microenvironments are analysed and interpreted. The partners hope that in combining whole-slide imaging with AI-powered spatial profiling, they will be able to generate new insights to enhance biomarker discovery, and guide precision immune-oncology strategies.
Bringing AI and pathology vendors together isn’t a new idea, but given Lunit’s reputation and Labcorp’s influence, this one could be particularly influential.
Primaa announced that it has integrated its Cleo Skin solution into Proscia ’s Concentriq platform and PathPresenter’s IMS. The tool aids pathologists in the diagnosis of melanoma, naevus, squamous cell carcinoma and basal cell carcinoma from digitised histology slides, improving, the vendor says, both the accuracy and efficiency of skin cancer diagnosis. Twice the partners means twice the opportunity, but even with Primaa’s funding success, is there a risk the vendor is spreading itself too thinly?
Not every vendor enjoyed such collegial idyls, however, with genomics vendor Illumina hit with a pair of lawsuits.
One lawsuit, centred around spatial biology, sees 10x Genomics joined with Prognosys Biosciences in accusing Illumina of infringing upon four patents, which were licensed by 10x from assignee Prognosys. The second case concerns single-cell sequencing, and sees 10x teaming up with Roche Diagnostics to accuse Illumina of infringing on five patents – three belonging to 10x directly, and two licensed by 10x from Roche. The complaints allege that Illumina’s recently announced spatial transcriptomics workflow (announced Feb 2025) and its single‐cell sequencing / barcoded bead technologies infringe these patents.
Competition is, obviously, ruthless in the genomics market, but, are more significant changes catalysing these actions?
Illumina also enjoyed some more positive news in the month however, with the launch of a new business unit which is focused on meeting industry demand for biological insights by enabling access to and interpretation of large-scale multiomic data.
BioInsight, as the new unit is called, will bring together a number of Illumina’s core capabilities in sequencing, informatics, and AI to provide customers with solutions that aid in the identification of drugs, understand biological pathways, discover novel disease mechanisms, and help foster biological insight. It could be critical as the vendor looks to move beyond its present brief.
Other vendors also enjoyed success. Fujifilm Healthcare, for example, entered into an extensive agreement with One Dorset Pathology in a bid to improve healthcare across the Dorset region.
The vendor has entered into a Managed Equipment Service agreement with the pathology hub and overseen by the UK’s NHS . Under the agreement it will manage all necessary digital pathology infrastructure. This includes the relationship of numerous external suppliers involved in the installation of slide scanners, AI, reporting and data analytics and cloud infrastructure among other elements.
In doing so, FUJIFILM Corporation will help ensure the trust always has access to up-to-date equipment while also offering ongoing service, upgrades and support. Such relationships aren’t a novel idea, but they could be key in the wider adoption of digital pathology?
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About Alan Stoddart, Managing Editor - Signify Premium Insights – Digital Laboratory
Alan joined Signify Research in 2020, using his editorial expertise to lead on the company’s insight and analysis services. Prior to joining, Alan held editorial positions covering a diverse range of technology and engineering topics working with Kantar Media and Kimberley Media Group.
About the Signify Premium Insights Contributing Analysts
Signify Premium Insights rely heavily on the industry expertise from Signify Research’s expert medical imaging analyst team. This team brings with it many years of experience developing market reports, insights and providing consultancy services to the medical imaging industry.
Imogen Fitt, Principal Analyst
Imogen joined Signify in 2018 as part of the Healthcare IT team. She holds a 1st class Biomedical Sciences degree from the University of Warwick. During her tenure Imogen has completed studies on digital pathology and the use of AI in drug development, expanding Signify Research’s coverage of clinical/preclinical markets.
Harsimran Kaur, Senior Market Analyst
Harsimran joined Signify Research in 2025 as a Senior Market Analyst in the Digital Laboratory and Lifesciences team. With over eight years of experience, she specialises in secondary and primary market research, as well as strategy consulting, providing insights to global customers across industries such as cancer therapeutics, rare diseases, novel biomarkers, digital therapeutics, and patient support programs.
Elizabeth Bourn, Market Analyst
Lizzie joined Signify Research in January 2025 as a Market Analyst within the Digital Laboratory & Lifesciences team. She holds a BSc in Biology from the University of Leeds with an industrial placement year at Amgen where she worked in patient safety.
About Signify Research
Signify Research provides healthtech market intelligence powered by data that you can trust. We blend insights collected from in-depth interviews with technology vendors and healthcare professionals with sales data reported to us by leading vendors to provide a complete and balanced view of the market trends. Our coverage areas are Medical Imaging, Clinical Care, Digital Health, Digital Laboratory and Lifesciences, Healthcare IT and AI in Healthcare.
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