OPKO Health, the Miami-based pharmaceutical company, announced it has entered into an agreement to pay $16 million for a Chilean pharmaceutical distribution company -- the first of a series of planned moves to stretch its reach worldwide.

``This is part of our plan to expand into Latin America and other countries,'' said OPKO Health's Chief Executive Phillip Frost.

In a telephone interview Friday morning, Frost said OPKO is looking for companies ``capable of rapid growth.''

Each investment might be small, but each could ``serve as a platform'' to distribute products worldwide, similar to what he did previously with IVAX, but this time with mostly branded drugs, not the generics that IVAX specialized in.

The new purchase, which is expected to close in a few days, involves Pharma Genexx S.A., a privately held Chilean pharmaceutical company that imports and distributes pharmaceutical and over-the-counter products and medical devices.

Pharma Genexx is being sold in an all-cash deal by its owners, FASA, a large drugstore chain in Latin America, and Laboratorios Volta, a Chilean pharmaceutical company.

Genexx started in 2006 and had sales of $11 million in 2008. In the first six months of 2009, revenue was $7.6 million.

OPKO started as a company developing a pipeline of ophthalmology products.

But in March it discontinued a Phase III study for an eye-treatment drug because it seemed unlikely to achieve its goals.

Since then, OPKO has made a series of acquisitions to expand beyond the eye field, moving into biotech and an alliance with scientist at the Scripps Research Institute in Florida.

Frost, 72, a dermatologist who practiced in Miami Beach before becoming a full-time entrepreneur, has developed and sold two major Miami companies -- Key Pharmaceuticals and IVAX.

The IVAX sale, to the Israeli drug maker Teva in 2006, netted Frost $1.2 billion in cash and stock.

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