Genfit and Lab Corp Partner Up For NASH Liver Test

Genfit SA (NASDAQ: GNFT) shot up on Monday after the company announced an agreement with Lab Corporation of America Holdings (NYSE: LH). This agreement is ultimately for Genfit’s technology to identify patients with at-risk non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).

In terms of the specifics, these companies have agreed to a five-year exclusive licensing agreement for Genfit’s NIS4 technology. As part of the agreement, LabCorp will develop and commercialize a blood-based molecular diagnostic test powered by NIS4 technology throughout the U.S. and Canada enabling widespread access to healthcare providers.

For some quick background, NASH remains a highly underdiagnosed disease due to its asymptomatic nature and the limitations of existing diagnostic approaches. Currently, a liver biopsy is the clinical standard to formally diagnose NASH and to determine the stage of fibrosis. However, the NIS4 technology has been developed to identify at-risk NASH.

This agreement with LabCorp will provide broad clinical availability of the test to specialty and primary care physicians across the U.S. and Canada. As such, LabCorp will leverage its experience in commercializing innovative diagnostics to educate providers on NASH and the importance of non-invasive testing.

The collaboration between these organizations began in early 2019, when LabCorp began offering NIS4 technology to biopharmaceutical customers for use in clinical studies through Covance, its drug development business.

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Specific financial terms for the agreement were not disclosed. However, the company is adding about $59.5 million worth of market cap on Monday, if that is any indicator.

Excluding Monday’s move, Genfit has underperformed the broad markets with the stock down about 79% year to date. In the past 52 weeks, the stock is down closer to 74%.

Genfit stock was last seen up about 31% at $5.47, with a 52-week range of $3.65 to $22.48.

LabCorp stock was recently trading up about 2% at $184.96, with a 52-week range of $98.02 to $206.74. The consensus analyst price target is $228.47.

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