GENFIT, a late-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to improving the lives of patients with metabolic and liver diseases, and LabCorp, a leading global life sciences company that is focused on advancing health and guiding patient care decisions, have agreed to a five-year exclusive licensing agreement for GENFIT’s NIS4 technology to help identify patients with at-risk non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
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.
NASH remains a highly underdiagnosed disease due to its asymptomatic nature and the limitations of existing diagnostic approaches. Liver biopsy, a highly invasive procedure, is the current clinical standard to formally diagnose NASH and to determine the stage of fibrosis. NIS4™ technology, as recently published in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology (available here), is a novel, multi-biomarker-based algorithm specifically developed to identify at-risk NASH, defined as the presence of NASH based on a non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) Activity Score (NAS) ≥4 and significant to advanced fibrosis (F≥2).
Patients with at-risk NASH have an advanced form of the disease and face a greater likelihood of progression to severe complications including liver cancer, cirrhosis and the need for liver transplant, if left untreated. A single test score generated from the integration of four independent biomarkers – miR-34a-5p, alpha-2-macroglobulin, YKL-40, and HbA1c – can be used by a healthcare provider to help inform the best course of intervention.
This agreement with LabCorp will provide broad clinical availability of the test to specialty and primary care physicians across the U.S. and Canada. LabCorp will leverage its deep experience in commercializing innovative diagnostics to educate providers on NASH and the importance of non-invasive testing. The collaboration between the 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.
Marcia Eisenberg, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of LabCorp Diagnostics, stated: “LabCorp is committed to developing and distributing novel diagnostics to support the diagnosis of patients with NASH, which is one of the fastest growing serious medical conditions in the U.S. GENFIT’s NIS4™ is a non-invasive technology specifically designed to identify patients with both NASH and significant to advanced fibrosis, and is an important advance in the ability to identify patients with NASH. We have gained valuable experience with this test since we began performing it in 2019 for clinical studies with biopharmaceutical clients, which will provide insights as we develop and prepare to make it available for use in patient care.”
Suneil Hosmane, Ph.D., Head of Global Diagnostics at GENFIT added: “We are pleased to expand our collaboration with LabCorp and are very enthusiastic about the potential impact of this agreement. We strongly believe that this test will help healthcare providers identify the approximately 10 million patients with at-risk NASH and higher risk of progression among the tens of millions with metabolic risk factors, such as type 2 diabetes and obesity, and suspected disease.”
Pascal Prigent, CEO of GENFIT, continued, “This partnership supports GENFIT’s pioneering research efforts in the field of NASH diagnostics that were recently recognized by experts in our most recent Lancet publication. The commercialization of NIS4™ technology by LabCorp is a defining opportunity whereby millions of NASH patients can become aware of, and then begin to take control of their disease.”
GENFIT is a pioneer in NASH diagnostics and is committed to the development of additional diagnostics and therapeutics in chronic liver disease. LabCorp has been involved in the development of drugs and diagnostics for more than 50 years and is a recognized global leader in NASH clinical trials.
Source: Company Press Release
