OPKO Health Announces Leadership Changes for BioReference Laboratories

MIAMI, Aug. 16, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OPKO Health, Inc. (NASDAQ: OPK), a multinational biopharmaceutical and diagnostics company, today announced that Jon R. Cohen, M.D., is retiring from his role as Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BioReference Laboratories and Senior Vice President and a Director of OPKO. He will remain as an employed advisor to the company through the end of December 2022 and continue as a consultant for the following nine months to assist in positioning the company for accelerated growth. Effective immediately, Craig Allen, President and Chief Operating Officer, has been appointed Interim Chief Executive Officer, reporting to Elias Zerhouni, M.D., President of OPKO Health.

“Since Dr. Cohen joined BioReference in 2019, he has provided visionary leadership,” said Phillip Frost, M.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of OPKO. “Dr. Cohen navigated BioReference through the COVID-19 pandemic and brought BioReference to national prominence as one of the largest providers of COVID-19 PCR testing and as the nation’s leader in surveillance testing. During this time, Dr. Cohen initiated and led the effort to build Scarlet Health, the digital at home blood draw solution which is now a covered service for over 83 million people.”

Craig Allen is currently the President and Chief Operating Officer at BioReference, leading all key operational aspects of BioReference. Craig has had more than 25 years of laboratory industry experience and held various leadership roles at Quest Diagnostics and General Electric, prior to joining BioReference in 2018.

“Throughout my time at BioReference, the deep bench of talent and dedication of our employees has always been and continues to be impressive,” said Craig Allen, Interim Chief Executive Officer of BioReference. “I am pleased to be entrusted with this opportunity to lead our Senior Management Team to position us for long-term profitable growth.”

About OPKO Health, Inc.

OPKO is a multinational biopharmaceutical and diagnostics company that seeks to establish industry-leading positions in large, rapidly growing markets by leveraging its discovery, development, and commercialization expertise and novel and proprietary technologies. For more information, visit www.opko.com.

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 our expectations, products, beliefs or intentions, including statements regarding BioReference’s prominence or leadership position, revenue prospects, the changes in leadership for BioReference and expectations around Scarlet Health . 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 Annual Reports on Form 10-K filed and to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and under the heading “Risk Factors” in our 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.

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