OPKO Health Subsidiary Receives Wall Street Journal 2011 Technology Innovation Award

MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- OPKO Health, Inc. (NYSE:OPK) today announced that Claros Diagnostics and Columbia University have been named as runner-up in the Medical Devices category of this year’s prestigious Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Awards. OPKO recently acquired Claros, a Woburn, Massachusetts based company that has a developed a novel microfluidics-based test that, with only a finger stick drop of blood, provides high performance quantitative test results within minutes from a small but sophisticated desktop analyzer.

The Wall Street Journal received over 600 applications from companies, organizations and individuals in 31 countries. Ultimately, judges chose 35 winners and runners-up in 16 categories. There were three primary criteria on which the judges made their selections. Does the innovation break with conventional ideas or processes in its field; Does it go beyond marginal improvements on something that already exists; and, Will it have a wide impact in its field or on future technology. The winners include such names as International Business Machines Corp., Novartis AG, Intel Corp. Abbott Laboratories, Xerox Corp. and runners-up Hewlett-Packard Co. and Yahoo Inc.

The award recipients will be honored at an awards ceremony and dinner on November 8th, 2011 in Redwood City, California, at the Sofitel San Francisco Bay Hotel.

“OPKO is very proud of Claros and its recognition as a leading technology innovator by The Wall Street Journal,” said Dr. Phillip Frost, OPKO’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

This is the latest honor given to Claros. In February 2011, Claros was named by MIT’s Technology Review as one of the 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World for 2011.

About OPKO Health, Inc.

OPKO is a multi-national biopharmaceutical and diagnostics company that seeks to establish industry-leading positions in large and rapidly growing medical markets by leveraging its discovery, development and commercialization expertise and novel and proprietary technologies.

This press release contains “forward-looking statements,” as that term is defined under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA), which statements may be identified by words such as “expects,” “plans,” “projects,” “will,” “may,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “should,” “intends,” “estimates,” and other words of similar meaning, including statements regarding the Claros platform and product candidates, the ability to provide high performance quantitative test results within minutes, the utility of the product in various blood diagnostics markets, as well as other non-historical statements about our expectations, beliefs or intentions regarding our business, technologies and products, financial condition, strategies or prospects. Many factors could cause our actual activities or results to differ materially from the activities and results anticipated in forward-looking statements. These factors include those described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as integration issues involving Claros, and risks inherent in funding, developing and obtaining regulatory approvals of new, commercially-viable and competitive products and treatments. In addition, forward-looking statements may also be adversely affected by general market factors, competitive product development, product availability, federal and state regulations and legislation, the regulatory process for new products and indications, manufacturing issues that may arise, patent positions and litigation, among other factors. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date the statements were made, and we do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements. We intend that all forward-looking statements be subject to the safe-harbor provisions of the PSLRA.

OPKO Health, Inc.
Steven D. Rubin, 305-575-6015

Source: OPKO Health, Inc.