EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn., June 5, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sunshine Heart, Inc. (Nasdaq:SSH) today announced that it has been awarded an Australian International Design Award in the Medical and Scientific category for its second-generation C-Pulse driver. Sunshine Heart, along with contract development partners, Design + Industry and Hydrix Services, collectively submitted an award application in March. Final awards were presented May 30, 2013 in Sydney, Australia.
The Australian International Design Awards program is Australia's longest running and most prestigious design recognition program with a 55-year history. This year's competition included more than 250 design entries across 15 categories with judging performed by six panels of Australian and international design experts. Each applicant was evaluated based upon form, function, quality, safety, sustainability, commerciality and innovation. Sunshine Heart was one of just three companies receiving this year's Design Award distinction, along with Cochlear and Philips Healthcare.
Sunshine Heart's second-generation C-Pulse driver features a single unit and is roughly half the size, lighter and quieter compared to its first generation predecessor. The C-Pulse System is a new therapeutic approach based on proven balloon counter-pulsation technology for the treatment of patients with Class III and ambulatory Class IV heart failure. The device is currently being utilized in the recently initiated investigational U.S. pivotal trial, COUNTER HF; as well as a CE marked European post-market study, OPTIONS HF.
About the C-Pulse® Heart Assist System
The C-Pulse Heart Assist System, or C-Pulse System, an investigational device in the United States, Canada and countries that do not recognize the CE mark approval, utilizes the scientific principles of intra-aortic balloon counter-pulsation applied in an extra-aortic approach to assist the left ventricle by reducing the workload required to pump blood throughout the body, while increasing blood flow to the coronary arteries. Combined, these potential benefits may help sustain the patient's current condition or, in some cases, reverse the heart failure process, thereby potentially preventing the need for later-stage heart failure devices, such as left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), artificial hearts or transplants. It may also provide relief from the symptoms of Class III and ambulatory Class IV heart failure and improve quality of life and cardiac function. Based on the results from our feasibility trial, we also believe that some patients treated with our C-Pulse System will be able to stop using the device due to sustained improvement in their conditions as a result of the therapy.
Caution: Investigational device, limited by Federal (or United States) Law to Investigational use.
About Sunshine® Heart
Sunshine Heart, Inc. (Nasdaq:SSH) is an early-stage medical device company focused on developing, manufacturing and commercializing the C-Pulse System for treatment of Class III and ambulatory Class IV heart failure. Sunshine Heart has completed an approved U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) feasibility clinical trial of the C-Pulse System and presented the results in November 2011. In March 2012, the FDA notified the Company that it could move forward with an investigational device exemption (IDE) application. Sunshine Heart received unconditional approval from the FDA in November 2012 to initiate its pivotal trial. In July 2012 Sunshine Heart received CE Mark approval for its C-Pulse System in Europe. Sunshine Heart is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Minneapolis with a wholly owned subsidiary in Australia. The Company has been listed on the NASDAQ Capital Market since February 2012.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this release are forward-looking statements that are based on management's beliefs, assumptions and expectations and information currently available to management. All statements that address future operating performance, events or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur in the future are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, our expectations with respect to the net proceeds from the offering, future clinical trial activities and results including patient enrollment in trials. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, that the net proceeds may be lower than we currently expect due to increased offering expenses or otherwise, the possibility that our clinical trials do not meet their enrollment goals, meet their end-points or otherwise fail, that regulatory authorities do not accept our application or approve the marketing of the C-Pulse System, the possibility that we may be unable to raise the funds necessary for the development and commercialization of our products, that we may not be able to commercialize our products successfully in the EU and the other risk factors described under the caption "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in our filings with the SEC. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements because they speak only as of the date when made and may turn out to be inaccurate. We do not assume any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. We may not actually achieve the plans, projections or expectations disclosed in forward-looking statements, and actual results, developments or events could differ materially from those disclosed in the forward-looking statements.