Opko Health Inc. (NASDAQ: OPK) enjoyed a bump at the outset of trading on Friday.
CEO Philip Frost owned 32% of the company as of last February, and reports have him adding to that stake since.
Frost's entire life has been in health-care. It's probably fair to say that healthcare is his passion. Born during the Great Depression, Frost won a full scholarship to Albert Einstein College of Medicine after attending the University of Pennsylvania.
A year after Schering Plough bought Key Pharmaceuticals, Frost formed generic drugmaker IVAX Corporation. He served as chairman and CEO of IVAX until 2006, when it was acquired by Teva Pharmaceutical. The deal catapulted Frost into the billionaires club. He joined Teva's board of directors as vice chairman and became chairman of the board for Teva in 2010, serving for nearly five years.
In 2007, he orchestrated a three-way merger between Froptix, eXegenics, and Acuity Pharmaceuticals and named the new company Opko.
In the company's quarterly conference calls. Frost used the words "enthusiastic" and "enthusiasm" three times in reference to Opko's products.
He likes the potential for Opko's long-acting oxyntomodulin program for treating obesity and type 2 diabetes. The company has had its own developing underway for several years, but its acquisition of clinical-stage biotech Transition Therapeutics in 2016 brought another oxyntomodulin product into the pipeline.
Some industry watchers have perked on this enthusiasm: Cantor Fitzgerald initiated coverage on OPKO Health with an overweight rating and a $20.00 price target.
Opko Health shares gained 14 cents as the clock approached noon on Friday, or 2.4%, to $6.02.
