Biohit: Chilean cancer project raises long-term potential
Summary
- Biohit's GastroPanel test has been included in Chile's national Digestive Cancer Prevention Strategy, enhancing its potential for inclusion in similar programs globally.
- The Chilean program aims to reduce gastric and colorectal cancer mortality by prioritizing high-risk patients and reducing unnecessary endoscopies, with implementation ongoing in 15 regions.
- Biohit's long-term growth outlook is strengthened by the success in Chile, with similar pilot programs starting in Colombia and Peru, although the immediate financial impact remains unclear.
- Despite the positive developments, Biohit's stock is considered fully valued with a P/E multiple of 22x for 2026, leading to a recommendation downgrade to Reduce due to an unattractive risk/reward ratio.
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Translation: Original published in Finnish on 11/13/2025 at 07:00 am EET
Biohit announced that a diagnostic test based on GastroPanel has been included in Chile's national Digestive Cancer Prevention Strategy. The news is an important success that can help Biohit gain a foothold in similar national programs in other countries. In the short term, success in a single country supports the realization of our growth estimates. The news also boosts Biohit’s long-term potential. We raise our target price to EUR 3.7 (was 3.4) in line with the estimate hikes. However, our recommendation decreases to Reduce (was Accumulate), as we no longer see the risk/reward ratio as attractive after the share price rally.
An important opening in Latin America
Biohit announced on Wednesday that the Chilean Ministry of Health has included the company's GastroPanel® technology-based test as part of the national program for the prevention of gastrointestinal cancers. The aim of the program is to reduce mortality from gastric cancer and colorectal cancer through early detection. According to the Chilean Ministry of Health, the use of the test enables health services to reduce unnecessary endoscopies by up to two-thirds, while ensuring that high-risk patients are prioritized for timely diagnosis and treatment. Implementation of the program is ongoing in 15 regions in Chile. Our interpretation is that the program is not committed to using the GastroPanel test in particular. However, we suspect that the program's pilot has been carried out specifically with GastroPanel, so we believe Biohit's commercial gain from the project is highly probable.
Similar programs can be launched elsewhere
In its Q3 blog Biohit discussed the Chilean pilot program. Thus, Wednesday's news did not come as a complete surprise, but the rapid progress from pilot to practice is naturally very positive. The published release is a confirmation of the pilot's success and its expansion to national-level healthcare. The company also announced in its blog the start of similar pilots in neighboring countries, Colombia and Peru. In addition to the neighboring countries. Chile's progress can serve as a good reference for the rest of the world, especially if Chile's results remain positive on a broader scale. Evidence of this should be available in the next couple of years.
Confidence in long-term growth strengthened
The release did not provide an estimate of the program's financial impact or volumes, making it difficult to assess the direct earnings impact of the progress. We, therefore, make moderate (2–3%) upward revisions to our already strong earnings estimates for the coming years. However, we believe the greater significance of the news is the strengthening of the longer-term growth outlook. We estimate that the probability of success in similar projects in other countries increased with the news. Reflecting this growth outlook, we also raise our long-term growth estimates.
The stock is currently fully priced
The share's P/E multiple based on 2026 estimates is 22x. We find the 2026 EV/EBIT multiple of 16x, which considers the strong balance sheet, tight, given the uncertainty of the estimates and the company's risk profile. We feel fast-rising receivables in particular should be considered in the valuation. The multiples are at the level of global large-cap peers (2026 EV/EBIT 16x), even though Biohit's risk profile is higher. With the revenue-based EV/S multiple (2026 EV/S: 2.5x) and when viewed from a cash flow perspective, we believe the share is fully valued. We consider the risk/reward ratio unsatisfactory after the rapid price rally, so we wait for better entry points.
