




Healthcare Industry News: coated stent
News Release - July 6, 2006
MIVT Cites Growing Body of Scientific Evidence Validating Company's Strategy to Create Safer, Better Cardiovascular Stents
Company's Proprietary Solutions to Address Widespread Medical Concerns Detailed in Wall Street Journal, JAMAVANCOUVER, British Columbia--(HSMN NewsFeed)--July 6, 2006--MIV Therapeutics (OTCBB:MIVT ; FWB:MIV), a leading developer of next-generation biocompatible coatings and advanced drug delivery systems for cardiovascular stents and other implantable medical devices, has cited a growing body of both basic scientific evidence -- as well as real-world treatment practices at leading cardiac care institutions -- that further validate the Company's core technology and business strategy to make a safer generation of coronary stents based on its proprietary bio-friendly stent coatings.
A recent article in the "Wall Street Journal," for example, reported on increasing concerns among leading health care institutions that the newest generations of drug-coated vascular stents are associated with serious long-term complications, including death.
"Rising concern over potentially deadly blood clots has led some cardiac centers to cut back on use of drug-coated stents," according to the Wall Street Journal article. "The moves come as a growing number of studies question the effectiveness and safety of the stents, which are coated with drugs to prevent arterial scarring."
Stents are used to prop open coronary arteries that have been narrowed as a result of vascular disease; MIVT has developed and is testing for commercialization a new generation of stents with proprietary coating based on a substance called hydroxyapatite (HAp). HAp has been shown in numerous studies not to trigger the body's most serious adverse reactions associated with either bare-metal or drug-coated generations of stents.
The latest reported concerns over stent safety come in the wake of additional scientific results that strongly demonstrate the potential life-saving value of HAp coatings.
A recent, fully independent study into the use of HAp in vascular applications, conducted at the University of Sienna in Sienna, Italy, and published in the prestigious international Journal of Biomedical Materials Research, confirmed HAp technology as a safe and potentially superior alternative to existing products. Notably, the study concluded that HAp caused neither the unwanted inflammation inside arteries, nor the elevated risk of potentially fatal blood clot formation. At the same time, the study concluded that HAp appears to actually promote the desirable growth of healthy epithelial cells that are necessary for long-term stent success.
The evidence presented in that study was a scientific landmark for MIVT, providing fully independent confirmation of the core safety and biocompatibility features of HAp materials in vascular applications. Other articles demonstrating stent-associated dangers, such as blood clots, have appeared in key medical publications as the Journal of the American Medical Association and the Lancet.
Cardiac care experts say the growing body of scientific data, coupled with trends in leading cardiac care centers, further underscores and validates MIVT's technology and central business mission.
"The scientific conclusions definitely suggest that MIVT, with its pioneering HAp-based coatings, is on track to develop products that address and solve the most important concerns about the long-term safety of stents," said Dr. Raoul Bonan, MD, Interventional Cardiologist at Montreal Heart Institute, Associate Professor of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal.
"If we consider that many of the best cardiac care centers are starting to reconsider their use of the current generation of drug-coated stents, we can expect that the marketplace will demand a wholly new solution to the problems long associated with stents," Dr. Bonan added. "MIVT is pioneering the push toward a theoretical gold standard of stents that would both promote healthy epithelial cell growth inside stented arteries, without triggering unwanted smooth muscle proliferation."
MIVT's HAp-based coatings are specifically designed to prevent the adverse negative reactions to existing stent implants that themselves can cause blood clots, heart attacks and other serious complications.
"We are glad to see that researchers and cardiac care physicians are alert to these central issues facing the stent industry and their patients," said Alan Lindsay, Chairman and CEO of MIV Therapeutics. "As a result of the positive research surrounding and confirming HAp safety, as well as MIVT's own product development progress, we believe we are at the forefront in this race to create a new generation of safer products for the multi-billion-dollar stent industry."
An abstract of the University of Sienna study can be read by visiting http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/112146392/ABSTRACT
About MIV Therapeutics Inc.
MIV Therapeutics is developing a next-generation line of advanced biocompatible coatings for passive and drug-eluting applications on cardiovascular stents and a broad range of other implantable medical devices. The Company's ultra-thin coating formulation is designed to protect surrounding tissue from potentially harmful interactions with bare metallic stents. The Company's unique ultra-thin coating platform is derived from an organic material called hydroxyapatite (HAp) which has demonstrated excellent safety and biocompatibility in vivo animal studies. Hydroxyapatite is a bioactive porous material that makes up the bone mineral and matrix of teeth and is widely used today as a bone substitute material and for coatings on implantable fixation devices in orthopedic, dental and other applications. The Company's novel polymer-free drug eluting technologies based on Hydroxyapatite could also provide an attractive alternative to current polymer-based drug eluting coatings on the stent market, which have been associated with undesirable medical effects. The Company's drug eluting coatings are additionally designed to suit a broad range of implantable medical devices that could benefit from highly customizable drug release profiles. MIVT has a Collaborative Research Agreement (CRA) with the University of British Columbia and has received Government grant for its research program on the "Development of Novel Drug Eluting Composite Coatings for Cardiovascular Stents," under the National Research Council-Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP). Under this sponsorship, the Company is expected to complete its drug-eluting research and development program and to reach product commercialization stage. For more information, please visit http://www.trilogy-capital.com/tcp/mivt/website.html. To read or download MIV Therapeutics' Investor Fact Sheet, visit http://www.trilogy-capital.com/tcp/mivt/factsheet.html. To obtain daily and historical Company stock quote data, and recent Company news releases, visit http://www.trilogy-capital.com/tcp/html/mivt.htm. MIVT is traded on the Frankfurt, Germany, stock exchange under the symbol MIV.
Forward-Looking Statements
Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking statements. Such statements are indicated by words or phrases such as "believe," "will," "breakthrough," "significant," "indicated," "feel," "revolutionary," "should," "ideal," "extremely" and "excited." These statements are made under "Safe Harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements and are subject to risks and uncertainties. See the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including, without limitation, the Company's recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Qs, which identify specific factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.
Source: MIV Therapeutics
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