OPK Biotech LLC

New Marketing Partner to Support the Expanded Sales of OPKO-Branded Products Throughout China on Additional E-Commerce Platforms, in Brick-and-Mortar Retail Locations and Launch In-Country Digital Marketing Programs COCONUT GROVE, Fla., July 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- NextPlat Corp (NASDAQ: NXPL, NXPLW) ("NextPlat" or the "Company"), a global e-Commerce provider, today announced that it has expanded its e-commerce development program in China through a new agreement with a leading Chinese healthcare and nutritional products marketing and distribution services partner (the "Marketing Partner"). The Marketing Partner will provide NextPlat with a full range of creative content, brand marketing and product sales and distribution services and support the Company's exclusive joint e-commerce development agreement with OPKO Health Europe ("OPKO"), a subsidiary of OPKO Health, Inc. (NASDAQ: OPK). As a marketing specialist in China, the Marketing Partner currently supports international healthcare and nutritional products companies including Nature Made and ITO, and provides logistics, warehousing and distribution services throughout China. The Marketing Partner has successfully developed and executed brand awareness campaigns for healthcare products on dozens of e-commerce sites such as Alibaba's Tmall, JD and Temu, and on digital/social platforms such as TikTok, Xiaohongshu, Weibo, Bilibili and WeChat. The Marketing Partner also supports product distribution into physical stores such as pharmacies, convenience stores and supermarkets, as well as into major U.S.-based retail chains operating in China including Costco and Sam's Club. The Marketing Partner is developing a series of digital product promotion programs for select OPKO products which are expected to contribute to NextPlat's Chinese e-commerce sales later this year. These marketing programs may include utilizing well-known Chinese social media influencers, live videos/broadcasts on social media platforms, and articles and product blogs designed to introduce OPKO products to potentially millions of consumers. "Our unique e-commerce development program was created to provide American companies with turn-key online sales, marketing and distribution access into the large Chinese consumer market without requiring the significant international infrastructure investments typically required. Through the addition of well-established marketing specialists in China, we believe we can provide our clients with a greater array of value-added services which can help drive product awareness and revenue," said Charles M. Fernandez, Executive Chairman and CEO of NextPlat. According to TMO Group (Health & Food Supplements, China Market, April 2024), China, with its rapidly growing middle class, shows increasing interest in lifestyle and many non-prescription health options with increases in income levels supporting an emphasis on health and wellness. The report cites data from Euromonitor International, showing that over the past five years, the health supplement market (including vitamins and dietary supplements (VDS), sports nutrition, weight management and wellbeing, and herbal/traditional supplements) in China has steadily increased, reaching approximately 387.9 billion RMB (approximately $53.3 billion) in 2023, with a compound annual growth rate of 9.6%. It is expected that by 2028, the health supplements market in China will exceed 440 billion RMB (approximately $60.5 billion). The TMO Group report also indicates that the online channel is the most important channel for VDS products, especially for cross-border imported products and that in 2023, health supplements from the U.S. and Australia were the first choices for Chinese consumers. "Today's new healthcare products marketing partnership in China broadens our digital and physical reach, including potentially dozens of additional online platforms as well as brick-and-mortar retailers across the country. Importantly, we can offer a valuable array of digital and social media promotion capabilities provided by a partner who has built a strong client portfolio in China, allowing us to significantly enhance the marketing of our initial OPKO products," said David Phipps, President of NextPlat and CEO of Global Operations. NextPlat's e-commerce development program, held in coordination with local Florida chambers of commerce, initially aims to help Florida-based businesses and manufacturers market and sell their products to potentially millions of new customers. The development program features NextPlat's turnkey global e-commerce solution and leverages the capabilities and reach of key partners including Alibaba and its Tmall Global platform, and additional in-country marketing and distribution specialists who support cross-border solutions enabling global brands to reach Chinese consumers. For more information about NextPlat, please visit and connect with us on Facebook and X. About NextPlat Corp NextPlat is a global e-commerce platform company created to capitalize on multiple high-growth sectors and markets including technology and healthcare. Through acquisitions, joint ventures and collaborations, the Company intends to assist businesses in selling their goods online, domestically, and internationally, allowing customers and partners to optimize their e-commerce presence and revenue. NextPlat currently operates an e-commerce communications division offering voice, data, tracking, and IoT products and services worldwide and pharmacy and healthcare data management services in the United States through its subsidiary, Progressive Care Inc. (OTCQB: RXMD). Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this release constitute forward-looking statements. These statements include the capabilities and success of the Company's business and any of its products, services or solutions. The words "believe," "forecast," "project," "intend," "expect," "plan," "should," "would," and similar expressions and all statements, which are not historical facts, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including the Company's ability to launch additional e-commerce platforms, sell healthcare products in China, and its ability to grow and expand as intended, any of which could cause the Company to not achieve some or all of its goals or the Company's previously reported actual results, performance (finance or operating), including those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. More detailed information about the Company and the risk factors that may affect the realization of forward-looking statements is set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), copies of which may be obtained from the SEC's website at . The Company assumes no, and hereby disclaims any, obligation to update the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. No Offer or Solicitation This press release is for informational purposes only and is not intended to and shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to sell or to buy any securities or a solicitation of any proxy, consent, vote or approval with respect to any securities in respect of the proposed transaction between NextPlat and Progressive Care Inc. ("Progressive Care") and is not a substitute for the Proxy Statement/Prospectus or any other document that NextPlat or Progressive Care may file with the SEC or send to NextPlat's or Progressive Care's stockholders in connection with the proposed transaction. No offer, sale, issuance or transfer of securities shall be made in any jurisdiction in which such offer, sale, issuance or transfer would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. Media and Investor Contact for NextPlat Corp: Michael Glickman MWGCO, Inc. 917-397-2272 [email protected] SOURCE NextPlat Corp.

Former Biopure Corp. senior vice president Howard Richman earned a three-year prison sentence and a $50,000 fine for faking cancer in an attempt to skate on a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit, according to news reports. Judge Mark Wolf of the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts slapped Richman, 57, with a harsher penalty than the 21 months prosecutors asked for and more than double the 15 months his lawyer sought. Richman, the defunct Cambridge, Mass.-based blood substitute maker’s regulatory affairs chief, will also serve 36 months probation once he’s out of prison. He pleaded guilty in March to obstructing justice in the SEC case. The commission accused Richman and other former managers of concealing the fact that the Food & Drug Administration was withholding approval of the firm’s flagship product, the blood substitute Hemopure, and halting further clinical trials over safety concerns. Biopure raised millions on two public stock offerings before disclosing the bad news from the FDA, which sent its stock price plummeting. Richman sought to avoid the trial by telling a federal judge he couldn’t participate because he was terminally ill with colon cancer, going so far as to impersonate a doctor during a phone call with his lawyers. Biopure went belly-up in July and sold off its remaining assets in August to OPK Biotech, which is owned by Russian oligarch Sergei Pugachev. Coincidentally, OPK put out a press release today detailing its acquistion of Biopure and its capacity to make about 100,000 Hemopure units a year. “The company also has all estimated and technical documents required for the construction of factories, able to produce more than 500 thousand doses of Hemopure a year,” according to the press release. “OPK Biotech and OPK plans imply the development of research-and-production complex in Russia, as well as further perfectionning of these technologies with the participation of Russian scientists and specialists.”

MOSCOW, October 6 /PRNewswire/ -- At the close of the 20th century, the lack of donor blood and the safety of blood medication became one of the most critical problems in the area of health protection on a global scale. The WHO (World Health Organization) started the Global Database on Blood Safety, GDBS. Experts also determined the main problems in the area of blood transfusion: the necessity of donor blood and other blood products, the limited access to materials used in hemotransfusion and blood safety. Nowadays the situation has improved, but mainly in western developed countries, which can hardly be said about other developing countries. Earlier there were attempts to struggle against this originated problem, by means of the creation of chemical blood analogues. This method had a wide application in Japan and in the USA, but during clinical trials of chemical drugs, a scandal arose in the USA. The reason was the high reactogenicity of drugs, as a result of which it was forbidden. The Russian company OPK Biotech, controlling the American biopharmaceutical company Biopure Corporation, has worked out two main products - Hemopure (for human treatment) and Oxyglobin (applied in veterinary medicine) - offering practical alternatives to these methods. Already in the beginning of the 1990s, basic production methods for biological analogue of human blood were worked out. These methods underlay innovative blood medicines, like Hemopure and Oxyglobin, originated from cattle blood, and functioning as an oxygen bridge to organisms during critical situations like anemia, ischemia or severe traumas. At that time Hemopure and Oxyglobin already existed in medicine, but it took the authorities permission to deliver the products to the market. In 1998, the Center for Veterinary Medicine, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) permitted to apply Oxyglobin in the USA. And in 1999, the European Committee permitted to apply Oxyglobin in the countries of the EU. This drug has been sold since 1998. In June 2005, the U.S. Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC) inquired the U.S. Maritime Force for permission to test Hemopure in the frameworks of surgical traumatology by means of the Federal budget. In December 2006, during a vote in the Blood Product Advisory Committee (BPAC) all surgeons supported such a particular testing. The Committee approved pre-clinical testing of Hemopure. Since then, the NMRC started to stock up on Hemopure. The contract with the NMRC is still ongoing. In 2009, the FDA got an inquiry for clinical application of Hemopure in USA. At the end of August 2009, Biopure Corporation was finally taken under OPK Biotech's control, a part of the United Industrial Corporation (OPK). OPK Biotech has high-qualified specialists and managers in the domain of biochemistry and finance. All top-managers possess academic degrees and scientific education from leading universities in the USA. Most of the managers also have great experience in the medical domain. In particular, the Member of the Board of Directors is a former U.S. Surgeon General, named Everett Coop. Today, OPK Biotech disposes of certificated production facilities, with the capacity to manufacture about 100 thousand doses (250ml) of Hemopure, 347 thousand doses of Oxyglobin (125 ml), or 647 thousand doses of Oxyglobin (60 ml) a year. The company also has all estimated and technical documents required for the construction of factories, able to produce more than 500 thousand doses of Hemopure a year. OPK Biotech aims at expanding scientific explorations, increasing the production base by means of new high-technological productions in different regions in the world, as well as developing global marketing to promote their high-technological products. In particular, OPK Biotech and OPK plans imply the development of research-and-production complex in Russia, as well as further perfectionning of these technologies with the participation of Russian scientists and specialists. About OPK United Industrial Corporation (OPK) is a diversified holding company with total value of assets of more than US$13 billion. OPK develops and manages an investment portfolio in major sectors of the Russian economy, including the financial sector, real estate development, shipbuilding, mining and media. For more information please visit the OPK website SOURCE OPK CONTACT: Press contact: OPK Press Service, Anna Latysheva, E-mail : pressa@opk.ru, Tel : +7-495-626-8359