OPKO Health acquires 10% stake in Russia's Pharmsynthez

USA-based OPKO Health (NYSE: OPK) says it has acquired an approximate 10% stake in OAO Pharmsynthez (MICEX: LIFE), a growing, fully-integrated Russian pharmaceutical company and the only life science company listed on the Moscow Stock Exchange.

OPKO’s investment is part of an approximate 1.9 billion rouble (US$60 million) two-stage financing in Pharmsynthez alongside the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (Rusnano), a Russian state owned company established in 2007 to foster development of nanotechnology and to encourage the growth of this field in Russia, Rusnano invested around 820 million roubles ($26.1 million) in the first step of the transaction.

This is not the first collaboration between the companies; at the end of 2012 Pharmsynthez signed an agreement with OPKO on preclinical and clinical development, as well as commercialization in the markets of Russia, CIS, Europe and Asia, of an anti-angiogenic agent based on synthetic peptoids. This drug is used to treat cancer and prevent abnormal blood vessel growth, with its potential sales in European and Asian markets currently estimated at $3.5 billion. Signing of an agreement is providing OPKO with the opportunity to expand in the Russian market and, according to some Russian analysts, to acquire a stake in Pharmsynthez, in the mid-term (The Pharma Letter February 20).