SUNRISE, Fla., Dec. 18, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bioheart, Inc. (Nasdaq:BHRT) and Life Technologies Corporation (Nasdaq:LIFE) have entered into a global distribution and OEM agreement to sell myoblast cell-based research products to life science researchers. Life Technologies will offer Bioheart's myoblast stem cell products to the research community so that they may accelerate the development of myoblast stem cell applications.
Myoblasts, or muscle derived stem cells, have been utilized in more than 7,000 scientific papers and abstracts in a variety of indications from heart failure to muscular dystrophy. In particular, when injected into scar tissue within the heart wall, myoblasts have been shown to be capable of engrafting in the damaged tissue and differentiating into mature skeletal muscle cells. Myoblasts are the only cell which has demonstrated an ability to generate new muscle tissue within the scarred regions of a heart.
The new myoblast products will complement Life Technologies' many reagents that are used to isolate, characterize, expand and differentiate stem cells.
"Partnering with Life Technologies, a global biotechnology company, ensures that myoblasts obtained by our proprietary technology will be available to academic and industrial researchers worldwide and is another step toward becoming a commercial company," said Howard J. Leonhardt, Chairman, CEO and CTO of Bioheart. "This distribution agreement will give us access to the research community and will expand the number of therapeutic applications under development with this type of cell."
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.