Novoheart Strengthens North American Presence Opening New R&D Location at the World-class Cove Facility, UC Irvine, California

Novoheart’s established presence in California marks a critical milestone in the Company’s early steps towards engaging the expansive North American market and supports its mission of positioning itself as a key player in the transformation of drug discovery.

A recently published study by members of the Novoheart team, completed in partnership with the UC Irvine team (Shum et al., Advanced Materials, 2017), clearly demonstrated the value of being in close proximity with like-minded scientists. Using the Company’s proprietary MyHeart™ Platform of human engineered cardiac tissues, researchers were, for the first time, able to detect the devastating arrhythmogenic hazards of certain “anti-arrhythmic” drugs that had previously caused fatalities in human patients despite passing through the flawed process of animal testing for FDA approval. By using the MyHeart™ Platform, which offers the unique ability to replicate patient responses, the Company was able to further validate its product’s highly significant potential for early identification of cardiac side effects prior to moving towards clinical trials.

“We are very excited to further expand our presence in North America and believe that working in The Cove provides an ideal environment to advance both our product and business development,” said Ronald Li, CEO of Novoheart. “The type of collaborative research between ours and UCI’s team clearly demonstrates the significant value of being in a state-of-the-art facility with other leading specialists. Having this type of validated research is incredibly important as we pursue our large-scale commercialization strategy and we believe that key, long-term, partnerships like those being established here will be a strong driver of our future success.”

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 ‘3D Hearts-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 major 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”.

About UCI Applied Innovation:

UCI Applied Innovation brings campus-based discoveries together with Southern California’s vibrant business community to support job creation and economic growth. To make this happen, UCI Applied Innovation facilitates connections between UCI and industry, including: entrepreneurs seeking access to university inventions and talent, large corporations looking to tap the school’s research capabilities, and investors wanting to financially support promising new companies. Additionally, UCI Applied Innovation is cultivating an “innovation district” in the heart of Southern California to produce more start-ups, more scale-ups, and ultimately a world-class entrepreneurial ecosystem.

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 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 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.

Contacts:
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