Novoheart Appoints Biotech Industry Specialist as New Senior Vice President to Lead Commercial Development


VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 01, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Novoheart (“Novoheart” or the “Company”) (TSXV: NVH; FWB: 3NH), a global stem cell biotechnology company, announced today that it has hired Bill A. Williams, Ph.D. as Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations.

With over 20 years of experience as a senior technical sales and business development executive in the biotechnology sector, Dr. Williams comes to Novoheart as a highly influential leader in the life science industry. Leveraging extensive sales and marketing experience, as well as a multitude of long-standing connections and relationships in the pharmaceutical industry and biotechnology sector, Dr. Williams will be responsible for growing the sales, marketing and business development of Novoheart’s suite of drug discovery tools including the MyHeart™ Platform of human bioengineered heart tissues.

I see enormous market potential with the technology Novoheart has developed and am excited to begin the next chapter of my career with its impressive team,” said Dr. Williams. “In past leadership positions, I am proud I have helped achieve aggressive commercial growth for new technology companies, and I look forward to doing the same with Novoheart’s revolutionary biotechnology.”

Previously at Organovo Inc., a provider of 3D bioprinted liver tissue models and testing services for pre-clinical drug discovery and development, Dr. Williams was Vice President, Global Sales, Marketing and Business Development, where he drove a 25-fold increase in annual revenue in two years. Prior to that, he was Vice President, Global Sales and Marketing at Aushon Biosystems Inc. During his tenure there he oversaw 160 percent growth in testing services as well as 100 percent year-over-year growth in consumable sales. He has also held sales leadership positions at biotechnology companies Ciphergen Biosystems Inc and Beckman Coulter Inc.

We are thrilled with the addition of Bill to our team,” said Dr. Ronald Li, Co-founder & CEO, Novoheart. “His impressive track record of driving significant business growth and revenue in recent roles, along with his valuable connections in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, will be a tremendous asset to Novoheart.” 

About Novoheart:

Novoheart is a global stem cell biotechnology company pioneering an array of next-generation human heart tissue prototypes. It is the first company in the world to have engineered miniature living human heart pumps that can revolutionize drug discovery, helping to save time and money for developing new therapeutics. Also known as 'human heart-in-a-jar', Novoheart’s bio-artificial human heart constructs are created using state-of-the-art and proprietary stem cell and bioengineering approaches and are utilized by drug developers for accurate preclinical testing as to the effectiveness and safety of new drugs, maximizing the successes in drug discovery whilst minimizing costs and harm caused to patients.

For further information, please contact:
Ronald Li, CEO
info@novoheart.com

Babak Pedram, Investor Relations
Virtus Advisory Group
Tel: 416-995-8651
bpedram@virtusadvisory.com

For media enquiries or interviews, please contact:
Josh Stanbury, Media Relations
Tel. 416-628-7441
media@novoheart.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Information set forth in this news release may involve forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", and "intend", statements that an action or event "may", "might", "could", "should", or "will" be taken or occur, or other similar expressions. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation; statements about the Company’s future plans, its goals and expectations, and the potential applications of its MyHeartTM platform are forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the risks identified in the management discussion and analysis section of Novoheart Holdings Inc.’s interim and most recent annual financial statement or other reports and filings with the TSX Venture Exchange and applicable Canadian securities regulators. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and the respective companies undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as required by applicable securities laws. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.