Opko Health’s New Acquisition (AMEX:OPK)

Formerly known as Ophthalmic Technologies Inc. Opko Health has recently agreed to acquire Chilean pharmaceutical company named Pharma Genexx for around US$ 16 million in cash. One of the reasons why this Florida-based pharma giant is taking up Chilean pharmaceutical is to enter the emerging markets in the future. The Miami-based Opko Health is a specialty healthcare company that is currently involved in the discovery, development and commercialization of pharmaceutical products, vaccines and diagnostic technologies. However, with this acquisition Opko Health is looking to expand into new areas like oncology and neurological disorders.

Opko Health CEO and Chairman Philip Frost have said that Opko Health believes that this acquisition will be an excellent strategic fit for Opko to expand further into international market. Currently, Pharma Genexx is involved in the representation, commercialization and distribution of pharmaceutical products and medical devices for private firms, government and institutional markets. The company however was launched in 2003 and had successfully pulled in around US$ 11 million in sales last year. The company is privately held by FASA, a drugstore chain in Latin America and Laboratorios Volta S.A, another Chilean pharmaceutical company.

The news about the acquisition had quick reaction on the shares of Opko Health, as the market saw a rise of three percent in the morning trading. Analysts have stated that after the failure of key ophthalmology trial in March this year, the CEO of Opko Health was desperately looking for some good acquisitions that would help the company to diversify their products and technologies that would secure the company in the near future. In June, the company licensed a new platform technology to speed up the development of vaccines and diagnostics from the UT Southwestern Medical Center. Additionally, Opko Health announced a direct stock offering of US$ 30 million to fund more acquisitions.