SUNRISE, Fla., March 7, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Bioheart, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of cell-based therapies and related devices, for the treatment of heart damage, announced the appointment of William M. Pinon to the position of President and Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately.
Mr. Pinon has nearly 20 years of operational and sales experience in the cardiovascular treatment industry. Mr. Pinon spent the past four years at Cordis Corporation, a Johnson & Johnson company, where he served most recently as Worldwide Vice President of Sales and Marketing for their cardiovascular business and their worldwide leading drug eluting CYPHER(tm) stent. In that position, he was responsible for all aspects of sales and marketing management for interventional cardiology products worldwide. He previously served, as General Manager and Vice President of the Cordis business unit, Biologics Delivery Systems, a company focused on the delivery of biologics to treat congestive heart failure. There he helped to develop the company into a fully integrated business, and managed all aspects of sales and marketing, including profitability, company vision, and long-range strategic planning. Mr. Pinon also served as Vice President of Commercial Operations for Cordis Cardiology, the business unit of Cordis focused on cardiovascular disease management.
Prior to joining Cordis, Mr. Pinon worked for Centocor, Inc., also a Johnson & Johnson company, where he served as Executive Director of Sales for its cardiovascular business unit from August 2000 through December 2002, and before that for Boehringer Mannheim Corporation Therapeutics from March 1992 to February 1998, where he managed the congestive heart failure business. Mr. Pinon received a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Oregon.
"Bill's experience and leadership in the cardiovascular and biologics delivery fields are exactly what Bioheart was looking for at this stage of our development," said Howard J. Leonhardt, co-founder of Bioheart. "We're delighted to have found a new CEO that has deep experience working with both small and large companies, with both drugs and devices. Bill has a proven track record of managing the FDA approval and commercialization processes for developing technologies."
As previously planned, Mr. Leonhardt will now serve as Bioheart's Executive Chairman and Chief Technology Officer, a newly created role, in which he will continue to lead Bioheart's efforts to develop additional cell-based therapies and related devices to treat heart damage.
About Bioheart:
Bioheart, Inc., based in Sunrise, Fla., is focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of cell-based therapies, and related devices, for the treatment of heart damage. Bioheart's lead product candidate is MyoCell(tm), an innovative clinical therapy designed to populate regions of scar tissue within a patient's heart with living muscle tissue for the purpose of improving cardiac function. Bioheart is currently testing MyoCell(tm) for treatment of severe, non-acute damage to the heart in patients in Class II or Class III heart failure according to the New York Heart Association heart failure classification system.
For more information about Bioheart, please visit http://www.bioheartinc.com.