Nichols Institute Diagnostics, a maker of medical test kits and supplies, plans to move from its longtime base in San Juan Capistrano to a planned 85,000-square-foot building within San Clemente’s Talega development.
About 200 workers are expected to make the move in coming months, company officials say.
Nichols Institute Diagnostics is unit of Teterboro, N.J-based Quest Diagnostics Inc., whose main business is medical testing services. The unit, part of Quest’s Nichols Institute lab in San Juan Capistrano, accounted for about $40 million of the company’s $3.4 billion in revenue last year, with half of that coming overseas, said William Kinser, vice president of the diagnostics unit.
Nichols Institute Diagnostics traces its roots to 1977, when it was started to offer high-quality testing assays, Kinser said. The diagnostics arm benefits from the main Nichols Institute laboratory’s “academic associate” program with academic physicians and research scientists, according to Kinser.
Specifically, Nichols Institute Diagnostics takes technology from the Nichols Institute reference laboratory and creates tests, Kinser said.
“We are still considered the ‘gold standard’ laboratory for highly specialized assays,” he said.
Nichols Institute Diagnostics’ products include Nichols Advantage, an automated testing system that’s capable of producing 170 results per hour. Nichols Advantage systems are capable of running tests for adrenal/pituitary diseases, anemia, autoimmune disorders, bone and mineral metabolism, diabetes, fertility, growth, hypertension, infectious diseases, tumors and thyroid markers.
Nichols Institute Diagnostics sells its products to hospitals, researchers and dialysis centers, among other customers. It also sells its test kits and machines to competitors of the Nichols Institute reference laboratory, such as the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., Kinser said.
The Nichols Institute reference laboratory complex is on 100 acres near the Cleveland National Forest in San Juan Capistrano and employs around 1,200 people. It is sometimes referred to as the “laboratory’s laboratory” because its workers perform highly specialized testing, much of it based on genetics.
Nichols Institute’s history dates back to 1971, when Dr. Albert Nichols, an endocrinologist-turned-entrepreneur, envisioned a high-end medical testing company with an academic orientation.
Talega Business Park totals 82 acres within Talega, a masterplanned development off Avenida Pico in inland San Clemente. n
