BG Medicine said today that it has amended its agreement with Abbott Laboratories for licensing and distributing its galectin-3 test.

The amendment changes product fees Abbott pays to BG Medicine for galectin-3 tests it sells to reference laboratories. In addition, Abbott was to make a payment of $500,000 to BG Medicine by November 30 and will make another $500,000 payment by June 30, 2016, provided certain commercial milestones are met.

BG said it expects that the modified agreement will help expedite the transition of its galectin-3 test from manual to automated platforms. Currently, the company derives the bulk of its revenues from manual testing, but it aims to move to automated testing.

Moving galectin-3 testing to an automated platform has long been a key part of BG Medicine’s commercial strategy. The company expects that such a move would increase uptake of the test by improving throughput and turnaround time and reducing the amount of labor involved in running it.