OPKO Health to buy Lab Arama to expand Latin American presence

Continuing on its acquisitive path, US drugmaker OPKO Health (NYSE: OPK) revealed that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Laboratorio Arama de Uruguay.

Domiciled in Montevideo, Uruguay, Arama will add to OPKO’s growing South American presence in the important Mercosur economic region while further complementing its business activities in Chile, Mexico and Brazil. The transaction, financial terms of which were not disclosed, is expected to close in January 2014.

This purchase is consistent with OPKO’s strategy of acquiring small, growing pharmaceutical companies which provide a platform to commercialize existing and future OPKO products while enhancing commercial synergies among our various units. So far this year, OPKO has acquired Canada’s Cytochroma and Israel’s PROLOR Biotech, as well as a 10% stake in Russia’s Pharmsynthez. It also purchased Brazil’s Silcon the year earlier (The Pharma Letters passim).