VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — (Marketwired) — Feb 14, 2018 — Novoheart(“Novoheart” or the “Company”) (TSX VENTURE: NVH), through its wholly owned US subsidiary, has entered into a commercial agreement with Sumocor LLC(“Sumocor”), a biotech company based in New York City that is focused on the development of therapeutics for cardiovascular diseases. Pursuant to the agreement, Novoheart will test Sumocor’s candidate therapeutics in three phases on Novoheart’s MyHeart™ Platform of human bioengineered heart constructs, to provide thorough pre-clinical assessment of efficacy and cardiotoxicity in the context of the human heart tissues and chambers in preparation for filing an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the United States Food and Drug Administration by Sumocor.
Heart disease remains the leading cause of death and morbidity worldwide. Sumocor is developing small molecule therapeutics that target SUMO1, a “chaperone” protein that regulates the activity of key transporter genes, which is deficient in the failing heart.
Phase I of the agreement is to focus on intensive toxicity screening of Sumocor’s lead compounds on Novoheart’s MyHeart™ Platform, following which additional candidates may be screened for efficacy as well as toxicity in Phase II. In Phase III, the best candidate(s) will be comprehensively profiled using the proprietary human heart-in-a-jar technology. The multi-phase project is expected to last 10 months, generating an estimated income of $380,000.
“Novoheart and Sumocor share a common interest in heart disease and therapeutics: we are thrilled to be partnering with such a pioneering company with the same vision and complementary strengths for developing potentially safer and more effective novel therapeutics to address a global healthcare issue,” said Novoheart CEO Ronald Li.
“We are excited to test our compounds in the novel platform that Novoheart has developed. Uncovering the potential toxic effects of cardioactive agents early on is very important for our development program of these therapeutic agents,” said Sumocor CEO Roger Hajjar.
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 bioartificial human heart constructs are created using state-of-the-art 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.
The Company is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (the “TSXV”) under the symbol “NVH”.
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, the term of and any revenue generated by the agreement with Sumocor, and the potential applications of its MyHeart™ 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 Novoheart’s management’s discussion and analysis for the year ended June 30, 2017 under the heading “Business Risks and Uncertainties” or in 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, however should any known or unknown risks materialize or those beliefs, estimates or opinions prove incorrect, actual result may vary materially from those described herein. Novoheart 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 reliance on forward-looking statements, as they are inherently uncertain.
Contacts:
Novoheart
Ronald Li
CEO
info@novoheart.com
Virtus Advisory Group
Babak Pedram
Investor Relations
416-995-8651
bpedram@virtusadvisory.com
For media enquiries or interviews, please contact:
Josh Stanbury
Media Relations
416-628-7441
media@novoheart.com
