BURLINGTON, N.C. — North Carolina’s Labcorp is lining up a large add-on to its diagnostic business after striking a cash deal to take selected BioReference Health pieces from OPKO Health for $722 million at closing.
The announcement landed Oct. 15. The cash number can flex with closing revenue, and Labcorp may later pay as much as $150 million more through an earnout tied to sales of BioReference’s 4Kscore assay, a blood test cleared by federal regulators to help spot aggressive prostate cancer risk.
What moves to Labcorp includes BioReference workstreams in lab panels, women’s care, urology assays and prison-health testing, along with more than 80 patient draw sites and supporting operations.
Executives said the mix should widen specialty menus and put tools such as 4Kscore in front of more clinics and patients. Until agencies sign off and other closing boxes are checked, both companies said they will keep operating separately.
Labcorp, based in Burlington, counts nearly 71,000 people on its payroll and clients in about 100 countries. The company said it ran more than 750 million tests worldwide in 2025 and backed a large share of newly cleared therapies. Miami-based OPKO cast the sale as a way to lean harder into its drug pipeline.
For the state’s life-sciences corridor, the deal keeps a major Triad employer expanding while folding specialty capacity from outside North Carolina into its network. Advisers named on the transaction include Lazard on Labcorp’s side and Piper Sandler for OPKO.
Investors will watch whether the earnout kicks in and how quickly patient service centers convert under Labcorp branding once regulators finish their review.
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