A Northern Kentucky laboratory company with a heavy focus on pain management has landed state incentives as part of a new multimillion-dollar expansion.
Ethos Laboratories, which offers toxicology, pain biomarker, pharmacogenetics, serology and Covid-19 testing, is investing more than $2.2 million at its headquarters in Newport. The project includes instrument expansions and other upgrades at the company’s 30,000-square-foot facility.
Brian Kincaid, CEO of Ethos Laboratories, told me the company has already started purchasing equipment. The improvements will allow Ethos to produce more sensitive, accurate and specific data as well as expand its capacity by almost 3.5 times, he said.
The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority approved up to $100,000 in tax incentives through the Kentucky Enterprise Initiative Act toward the effort. The incentives will allow Ethos to recoup Kentucky sales and use tax on construction costs, building fixtures, equipment used in research and development and electronic processing.
It also prolongs its current building’s lifespan, Kincaid said. Ethos originally moved to Newport in 2013.
“We’re being proactive,” he said. “The initiative expedites that equipment exchange in order for us to be able to stay in this building for a longer period of time.”
Kincaid, along with Tim Adams and Todd Bladel, founded Ethos in 2010 to help advance a relatively young specialty in chronic pain management.
Kincaid, a biomedical engineer by trade, said he was initially approached by a group of physicians looking for better laboratory options in the space. “They indicated there was a lot of price gouging, the reliability of service was bad, the results weren’t great, and the reports were hard to read,” he said. "We looked into it and decided, 'Let's do this.'"
Ethos quickly outgrew its original home in Fairfield and relocated to Newport in 2013. The company purchased a 30,000-square-foot facility at 30 E. Sixth St., a building formerly owned by Trauth Dairy. It received tax incentives at that time to make the move.
The company's core business includes clinical toxicology, pharmacogenetics, immunology, virology, and serology, or blood serum testing. Ethos, since 2020, has also served as a key provider of Covid-19 PCR testing for Kentucky schools and higher education institutions, Ohio-based long-term care facilities and first responders, among others. Kincaid said Ethos received the first emergency use authorization, or EUA, from the Food and Drug Administration for a Maldi-Tof-based test for diagnosis.
The company recently launched its Foundation Pain Index, or FPI, after more than five years of research and development (its Newport facility also serves as the headquarters for Ethos Research & Development, a separate company focused on innovation).
The FPI, a urine test, provides a numeric score on a scale of 0 to 100 that identifies the impact an individual’s biochemistry can have on their chronic pain. The index can be used to guide more relevant, personalized and non-opioid-based treatment solutions, Kincaid said.
“The initial adoption has been tremendous,” he said. “Our primary focus from day one has been advancing pain management, trying to better ways to approach the opioid epidemic, and we’ll continue to build off that early success to try to reach the entire country as quickly as we can.”
Gov. Andy Beshear formally announced the expansion Tuesday. The project received additional praise from Campbell County Judge Executive Steve Pendery, Newport Mayor Tommy Guidugli Jr. and other elected officials.
If Ethos meets its annual targets over the agreement term, the company is eligible to keep a portion of the new tax revenue it generates. Ethos may claim eligible incentives against its income tax liability and/or wage assessments.
In addition, Ethos can receive resources from Kentucky’s workforce service providers, including no-cost recruitment and job placement services, reduced-cost customized training and job-training incentives.
Ethos currently employs around 570 nationwide.
“Ethos is doing great things in our state, and the company’s continued growth is greatly appreciated,” Beshear said in a release.
Ethos Laboratories overall is part of a growing life sciences cluster in Northern Kentucky, which includes companies like Gravity Diagnostics, Bexion Pharmaceuticals, Wood Husdon Cancer Research, BioWish Technologies and CTI Clinical Trial and Consulting Services.
Northern Kentucky Tri-ED CEO Lee Crume said the area’s life sciences employment doubled from 2014 to 2019, according to an analysis by EY.
