SUNRISE, Fla., Nov. 6, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bioheart, Inc. (Nasdaq:BHRT) announced today that it has received a Notice of Allowance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for nine new patent claims covering the use of electrical stimulation to enhance stem cell regeneration of damaged heart muscle.
The invention and its claims are deemed to be pioneering in that they harness the natural electro-chemical instructional program that teaches stem cells to become heart muscle and then apply this process to damaged heart muscle in patients suffering of heart failure. The stimulation not only attracts stem cells with a homing signal but also causes the release of beneficial proteins. The stimulation method may be applied with or without the injection of stem cells. The claims of the patent also cover pre-conditioning stem cells towards a cardiac phenotype by electrically stimulating them during culture before implantation into damaged heart muscle.
Bioheart built prototypes of devices that can run this electrical stimulation program and tested the proof of concept studies over the past several years leading up to this patent notice of allowance, working with Dr. Juan Chachques, Associate Professor Cardiac Surgery, Pompidou Hospital, Paris, France.
"This truly has the potential to be a landmark invention in the field of heart failure treatment," stated David Holmes, M.D., Chairman of Cardiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.
The inventors, Howard J. Leonhardt, Chairman, CEO and CTO of Bioheart, Inc. and Dr. Chachques, have previously partnered to receive other related patents for complementary devices and methods.
"We believe Bioheart's intellectual property estate is unmatched in the field of heart muscle repair," stated Howard Leonhardt.
"The best way to predict the future is to create it," stated Dr. Juan Chachques. "This invention could be regarded in the future as one of the most important developments ever in the fight to reduce the death rate from heart failure."
Bioheart, Inc. now holds the rights to more than 36 related patents with over 400 patent claims.
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.
MyoCell and MyoCell SDF-1 are trademarks of Bioheart, Inc.
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 secure additional financing; (ii) the timely success and completion of our clinical trials; (iii) the occurrence of any unacceptable side effects during or after preclinical and clinical testing of our product candidates; (iv) regulatory approval of our product candidates; (v) our dependence on the success of our lead product candidate; (vi) our inability to predict the extent of our future losses or if or when we will become profitable; (vii) our ability to protect our intellectual property rights; and (viii) 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 and June 30, 2008.