NFL Season Opener Puts Spotlight on Opko’s Covid-19 Testing

The start of the National Football League season on Thursday is a milestone for Opko Health Inc., the diagnostics company that has improbably found itself at the center of the U.S.’s bid to safely resume professional sports.

Investors will be watching to see how Opko’s BioReference Laboratories handles the task of testing players and personnel as teams begin to travel and competition starts. The company has already helped Major League Soccer and the National Basketball Association resume play earlier this year.

Shares of Opko, which acquired BioReference in 2015 for $1.3 billion, surged to a two-year high in July ...