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OPKO Health Appoints Industry Veteran Dr. Naveed Shams as Chief Medical Officer

Monday, January 14, 2008 General News
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MIAMI, Jan. 14 OPKO Health, Inc. (Amex: OPK)today announced that Naveed Shams, M.D., Ph.D., has joined OPKO as its ChiefMedical Officer and Senior Vice President of Research and Development. Dr.Shams will play a critical role in advancing OPKO's clinical trials and inleading the company's research and development programs.
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"Dr. Shams brings 14 years of global drug development experience to OPKOthat spans the entire development process, including discovery research, earlydevelopment, Phase I through Phase IV clinical studies and interaction withregulatory authorities across all stages of R&D," said Phillip Frost, M.D.,Chairman and CEO of OPKO. "Dr. Shams will be a tremendous asset to OPKO as wecontinue to aggressively pursue our research and development programs andadvance the clinical testing of bevasiranib, our lead agent for neovascularage-related macular degeneration."
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Prior to joining OPKO, Dr. Shams led the clinical team at Genentech, Inc.that developed and launched Lucentis(R), an anti-VEGF agent for the treatmentof neovascular age-related macular degeneration. His team successfullyconducted the SAILOR Study for Lucentis, one of the largest safety studies inthe history of ophthalmology, and supported over 50 trials to investigate thesafety and efficacy of anti-VEGF treatments in various diseases of the eye.

Previously, Dr. Shams, was a member of the Novartis Ophthalmics ClinicalR&D Group, where he led global clinical development and registration effortsfor the anti-allergy ophthalmic drug Zaditor(R) and the intraocular pressurelowering agent Rescula(R). He provided post-marketing clinical and regulatorysupport to Visudyne(R) for use in patients with age-related maculardegeneration. Prior to his position at Novartis, Dr. Shams led the GlaucomaDiscovery Group at Storz Ophthalmics, where he helped conduct a trial ofcidofovir for the treatment of viral keratoconjunctivitis.

"I am extremely pleased to join OPKO Health at this exciting stage in thedevelopment of bevasiranib, a first-in-class drug candidate that has thepotential to provide important benefits to patients with age-related maculardegeneration," said Dr. Shams. "I look forward to working with OPKO's seasonedmanagement team to further strengthen OPKO's R&D capabilities as it builds itspipeline of drugs for the treatment of ophthalmic diseases."

Dr. Shams received a medical degree from Dow Medical College, Karachi,Pakistan and a doctoral degree in microbiology and immunology from theUniversity of South Carolina. He completed a fellowship in cornea andexternal disease at the Harvard Medical School and a fellowship inhistocompatibility and immunogenetics at Massachusetts General Hospital.Before joining industry, Dr. Shams was a member of the Research Faculty at theSchepen's Eye Research Institute and Department of Ophthalmology at HarvardMedical School.

Bevasiranib is a first-in-class small interfering RNA (siRNA) drugdesigned to silence the genes that produce vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF), believed to be largely responsible for the vision loss of wet AMD.Bevasiranib is the first therapy based on the Nobel Prize-winning RNAinterference (RNAi) technology to advance to Phase III clinical trials.

The multi-national Phase III COBALT (Combining Bevasiranib And LucentisTherapy) clinical trial of bevasiranib for the treatment of wet AMD iscurrently enrolling patients at multiple clinical sites. For more informationabout the COBALT trial, please visit www.opko.com/clinicaltrials

Lucentis is a registered trademark of Genentech, Inc. Zaditor, Resculaand Visudyne are registered trademarks of Novartis Pharma.

About OPKO Health, Inc.

Miami-based OPKO is a specialty healthcare company. Its leadinvestigational drug, the pioneering gene silencing agent bevasiranib, hasentered a pivotal Phase III trial after successfully co
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