OPKO Health Appoints Pascal J. Goldschmidt to Board of Directors

MIAMI, Oct. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- OPKO Health Inc. (Amex: OPK) has announced the appointment of Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D. to its Board of Directors. Dr. Goldschmidt is the Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs and Dean of the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine. Dr. Goldschmidt formerly served as Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center.

"We are delighted to welcome an exceptional healthcare leader like Pascal Goldschmidt to our Board," said Phillip Frost, M.D., Chairman and CEO of OPKO Health. "We expect the insight and experience gained from his distinguished record of achievement at several of our most respected academic medical institutions will be very valuable to our efforts to build a successful company dedicated to providing novel diagnostic and therapeutic products to physicians and their patients."

Before assuming his current position, Dr. Goldschmidt was Chief of Cardiology and then promoted to Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center. Earlier in his career, Dr. Goldschmidt was Director of Cardiology at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health, where he built the Heart and Lung Research Institute and a cardiology specialty hospital.

Dr. Goldschmidt serves on the Board of Directors of Pediatrix Medical Group, Inc. He received an M.D. degree from Universite Libre de Bruxelles and completed residency and fellowship training in Belgium at Erasme Academic Hospital and in the United States at The Johns Hopkins University.

About OPKO Health, Inc.

Miami-based OPKO is a specialty healthcare company. Its lead investigational drug, the pioneering gene silencing agent bevasiranib, has entered a pivotal Phase III trial after successfully completing Phase II trials for wet age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema. OPKO is developing a preclinical pipeline of novel agents for ophthalmic diseases and markets diagnostic systems that complement its therapeutic products. For more information visit the company's website at http://www.opko.com.

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 our product development efforts, our ability to develop a preclinical pipeline of novel agents for ophthalmic diseases, our ability to market diagnostic systems that complement our therapeutic products, 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 risks inherent in funding, developing and obtaining regulatory approvals of new, commercially-viable and competitive products and treatments, including the risks that enrollment of patients for the Phase 3 clinical trial for bevasiranib, may not be successful, that the Phase 3 clinical trial itself may not be completed on a timely basis or at all, that any of our compounds under development, including bevasiranib, may fail, may not achieve the expected results or effectiveness and may not generate data that would support the approval or marketing of products for the indications being studied or for other indications. 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.

    Contacts:                             Media:
    Corporate:                            GendeLLindheim BioCom Partners
    Steven D. Rubin                       Barbara Lindheim
    305 575-6000                          212 918-4650

SOURCE OPKO Health Inc.

Released October 1, 2007