SUNRISE, Fla., Jan. 9, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bioheart, Inc. (Nasdaq:BHRT), a company developing core technologies aimed at serving the heart failure patient population, announced today that eight of its affiliated researchers will present data at the upcoming Fifth International Conference on Cell Therapy for Cardiovascular Disease, January 14-16, 2009, at The New York Academy of Medicine, 1216 Fifth Avenue at East 103rd Street, New York, New York.
The lineup of presentations covers most of Bioheart's product developments including those relating to its 330-patient, multi-center Phase II/III trial of MyoCell(r) in North America and Europe, (the "MARVEL Trial"), which investigates the use of myogenic stem cells for improving cardiac function in heart failure patients. Bioheart's pursuit of cell-based therapies to improve the outlook of patients with heart disease involves many of the world's leading cardiac researchers.
Bioheart collaborating researchers presenting at the conference include the following:
-- "MARVEL: Myoblast Status Update"
Dr. Warren Sherman, Director of Cardiac Cell-based Endovascular
Therapies at Columbia University's Center for Interventional
Vascular Therapy and principal investigator of the Phase II/III
MARVEL Study
-- "Intracoronary Cell Delivery: Mechanisms and Management of
Effects"
Dr. Keith L. March, Director Indiana University Center for
Vascular Biology
-- "Multicenter Randomized Clinical Trial of Erythropoietin
(REVEAL): Study Design and EPC Methodology"
Dr. Thomas J. Povsic, Assistant Professor of Medicine,
Interventional Cardiologist, and Chief of the Endothelial
Progenitor Cell Laboratory at Duke University Medical Center
-- "Cell Signaling in the Post-Acute Injury Myocardium"; "Multipotent
Adult Progenitors: FIM"; and "SDF-1 for Congestive Heart Failure"
Dr. Marc Penn, Medical Director of the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit
at the Cleveland Clinic and staff cardiologist in the Section of
Clinical Cardiology, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, at
Cleveland Clinic Heart and Vascular Institute, and in the
Department of Cell Biology
-- "Clinical Trials for Angiogenesis Should Begin on the Ground:
Let's Walk (PAD) Before We Run (CAD)" (con position); and "CD34+
Cells (ACT-34 CMI): The Vascular Progenitor of Choice?"
Dr. Timothy D. Henry, Director of Research at the Minneapolis
Heart Institute Foundation and an Interventional Cardiologist at
the Minneapolis Heart Institute/Abbott Northwestern Hospital
-- "Autologous Bone Marrow Cells for the Stroke Patient: Lessons
from Clinical Trials"
Dr. Hans F. Dohmann, Director of the National Institute of
Cardiology (Brazil), Secretary of Health (Rio de Janeiro), and
Scientific Director of the Hospital Pro- Cardiaco (Rio de Janeiro)
-- "Impact of Adipose Derived Human Stem Cell injection on Acute MI"
Dr. Mahmoud Abu-Abeeleh, Assistant Professor of Cardiac Surgery at
the University of Jordan, School of Medicine
To register for the conference, contact Ms. Tara Donegan at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation at tdonegan@crf.com or telephone 212-851-9138. To view the conference agenda, please visit http://crf.org/Cell_Therapy/index.php.
For more information on Bioheart, Inc., contact Mr. Jason Griffeth at jgriffeth@bioheartinc.com or 954-835-1500.
About Bioheart, Inc.:
Bioheart, Inc. (Nasdaq:BHRT) is committed to delivering intelligent devices and biologics that help monitor, diagnose and treat heart failure and cardiovascular diseases. Its goals are to improve a patient's quality of life and reduce health care costs and hospitalizations. Specific to biotechnology, Bioheart is focused on the discovery, development and, subject to regulatory approval, commercialization of autologous cell therapies for the treatment of chronic and acute heart damage. Its lead product candidate, MyoCell(r), is an innovative clinical muscle-derived stem cell therapy designed to populate regions of scar tissue within a patient's heart with new living cells for the purpose of improving cardiac function in chronic heart failure patients. The Company's pipeline includes multiple product candidates for the treatment of heart damage, including Bioheart Acute Cell Therapy, an autologous, adipose tissue-derived stem cell treatment for acute heart damage, and MyoCell(r) SDF-1, a therapy utilizing autologous cells that are genetically modified to express additional potentially therapeutic growth proteins. For more information on Bioheart, visit www.bioheartinc.com.
Forward-Looking Statements:
Except for historical matters contained herein, statements made in this press release are forward-looking and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, words such as "may," "will," "to," "plan," "expect," "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "could," "would," "estimate," or "continue," or the negative other variations thereof or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements.
Investors and others are cautioned that a variety of factors, including certain risks, may affect our business and cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. These risk factors include, without limitation, (i) our ability to obtain additional financing; (ii) our ability to control and reduce our expenses; (iii) our ability to establish a distribution network for and commence distribution of certain products for which we have acquired distribution rights; (iv) our ability to timely and successfully complete our clinical trials; (v) the occurrence of any unacceptable side effects during or after preclinical and clinical testing of our product candidates; (vi) the timing of and our ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approvals for our product candidates; (vii) our dependence on the success of our lead product candidate; (viii) our inability to predict the extent of our future losses or if or when we will become profitable; (ix) our ability to protect our intellectual property rights; and (x) intense competition. The Company is also subject to the risks and uncertainties described in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the section entitled "Risk Factors" in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007, as amended by Amendment No. 1 on Form 10-K/A and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2008, June 30, 2008 and September 30, 2008.