NEW YORK – Investment bank BTIG initiated coverage of Renalytix on Monday with a Buy rating and share price target of $24.
In a research note, BTIG analyst Mark Massaro wrote that the London-based company addresses a "substantial unmet clinical need in kidney disease diagnostics."
Its blood-based KidneyIntelX test provides a patient risk score to predict progressive kidney function decline or failure for a total addressable market of about 12.6 million Americans with diabetic kidney disease, Massaro said, adding that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has set a national price of $950 per test.
According to Renalytix, its KidneyIntelX platform combines diverse data inputs, including validated blood-based biomarkers, inherited genetics, and personalized patient data from an electronic health record, and it uses a proprietary algorithm to generate the patient risk score.
The early-stage commercial firm has an initial addressable market of $11 billion, and BTIG is not aware of any competition, Massaro said. The investment bank expects "early adopters to ramp up in 2022," a year in which Renalytix expects to add 20 health systems as customers, he said, adding that the firm could also obtain US Food and Drug Administration approval for its platform this year.
Separately, on Tuesday, Renalytix and the American Diabetes Association announced a joint program to improve overall kidney health in US patients with type 2 diabetes. Together, the partners will drive early detection and care to delay disease progression, reduce dialysis starts, and improve the overall health of chronic kidney disease, they said.
Last April, the firm announced it had landed a 10-year US government contract that enables testing services using KidneyIntelX.
In early morning trading Tuesday on the Nasdaq, Renalytix's shares were up 10 percent at $17.08.