OPKO Health's BioReference Laboratories and State of New Jersey Provide Testing for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

ELMWOOD PARK, N.J., March 20, 2020 – BioReference Laboratories, Inc., an OPKO Health company (NASDAQ: OPK), today announced a collaboration with the State of New Jersey to provide coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) testing across the State. BioReference will provide testing for the first NJ drive-through facilities in Burlington, Essex, Hudson, Ocean and Union Counties.

“Expanded testing is imperative to protecting the people most susceptible to this epidemic, specifically senior citizens, people with chronic health problems, and those with compromised immune systems,” said New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. “We are grateful for this partnership with BioReference, as it means the people of New Jersey will have increased access to testing and faster results, helping limit the spread of COVID-19.”

“To support the high demand for convenient and efficient COVID-19 testing, BioReference and the State of New Jersey, the home of our main laboratory, have collaborated to expand access to testing across the State by providing an additional 10,000 tests to New Jersey residents,” said Jon R. Cohen, M.D., Executive Chairman of BioReference Laboratories. “In addition, we are working with five counties directly in opening drive-through testing locations and will expand from there. It is a privilege to offer testing to residents of New Jersey, where the majority of our 4,000 employees live.” 

The NJ Poison Control Center and 211 have partnered with the State of New Jersey to provide general information to the public on COVID-19: call 1-800-962-1253 or text: NJCOVID to 898-211 and include your zip code for live text assistance. Visit www.nj.gov/health for additional information.

Providers should refer to the most current CDC guidelines for further information on appropriate testing of patients, available here https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/clinical-criteria.html.  

About COVID-19 Testing at BioReference Laboratories, Inc.

BioReference Laboratories is accepting specimens for COVID-19 testing from healthcare providers, clinics and health systems throughout the United States to promote earlier diagnosis of the coronavirus and to aid in limiting spread of infection. In addition to its nationwide COVID-19 testing offering, BioReference has a partnership with the New York State Department of Health to provide testing for the first public drive-through testing facility on the East Coast, as well as a collaboration with the New York City Health and Hospital Corporation (NYC Health + Hospitals), the largest public healthcare system in the nation serving more than one million New Yorkers annually, to provide COVID-19 testing. 

BioReference is offering a real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (real-time RT-PCR) assay with expected 24-48 hour turnaround time. The Novel Coronavirus COVID-19 test has been made available pursuant to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Emergency Use Authorization for diagnostic testing in CLIA certified high-complexity laboratories. All tests are conducted in BioReference’s main laboratory in Elmwood Park, N.J., which currently has a capacity to run up to 15,000 COVID-19 tests per day. For more information, visit https://www.bioreference.com/coronavirus. 

About BioReference Laboratories, Inc.
BioReference provides comprehensive testing to physicians, clinics, hospitals, employers, government units, correctional institutions and medical groups. The company is in network with the five largest health plans in the United States, operates a network of 10 laboratory locations, and is backed by a medical staff of more than 160 MD, PhD and other professional level clinicians and scientists. For more information, visit www.bioreference.com.  

About OPKO Health

OPKO Health is a diversified healthcare company. In diagnostics, its BioReference Laboratories is one of the nation's largest full-service clinical laboratories; GeneDx is a rapidly growing genetic testing business; the 4Kscore® test is used to assess a patient’s individual risk for aggressive prostate cancer following an elevated PSA and to help decide about next steps such as prostate biopsy; Claros® 1 is a point-of-care diagnostics platform with a total PSA test approved by the FDA.  In our pharmaceutical pipeline, RAYALDEE is our first pharmaceutical product to be marketed.  OPK88003, a once-weekly oxyntomodulin for type 2 diabetes and obesity - reported positive data from a Phase 2 clinical trial.  It’s among a new class of GLP-1/glucagon receptor dual agonists.  OPK88004, a SARM (selective androgen receptor modulator) is currently being studied for various potential indications. The Company’s most advanced product utilizing its CTP technology, a once-weekly human growth hormone for injection, successfully met its primary endpoint and key secondary endpoints in a Phase 3 study and is partnered with Pfizer. OPKO also has research, development, production and distribution facilities abroad.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
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 BioReference’s plans to begin testing for COVID-19 in New Jersey and the timing of and availability of the test, the turn-around time for testing, 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 the OPKO Health, Inc. Annual Reports on Form 10-K filed and to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and in its other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 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

Media contacts for BioReference Laboratories:
Hillary Titus, htitus@bioreference.com