Continued Success of Novoheart to Receive R&D Grants

Innovation Technology Fund for Developing Smart Cardiac Screening Technologies

• Grant will fund advanced R&D and incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) technology to accelerate drug development using Novoheart’s bio-engineered human heart chambers and tissues
  
• The resulting advancements expected to increase scale and capabilities of Novoheart’s MyHeart Platform and expand commercialization opportunities for Novoheart’s market-leading technologies

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Novoheart (“Novoheart” or the “Company”) (TSXV: NVH; FWB: 3NH), a global stem cell biotechnology company, is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary Novoheart Limited has been awarded a further grant from the Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) of Hong Kong SAR Government. Combined with a cash rebate scheme and funding for hiring R&D talent, the Company is expected to receive a total of over HK$10 million ($1.67 million CAD) in grant awards from the ITC over the next 2 years. This is the third major R&D matching grant that the ITC has awarded Novoheart in recognition of the company’s pioneering work involving its award-winning MyHeart Platform of bioengineered human heart tissues, making the total awarded grant to over $22 million HKD ($3.7 million CAD).

The new grant will fund research to further enhance the drug screening capabilities of its proprietary human ventricular Cardiac Organoid Chamber (also known as ‘human heart-in-a-jar’) and human ventricular Cardiac Anisotropic Sheet (hvCAS). Moreover, building on Novoheart’s proprietary machine learning platform, a holistic artificial intelligence (AI) approach with enhanced multiplexed machine learning technology will also be developed to integrate data from multiple MyHeart assays as a “smart system”. The system will weigh the unique strengths of each assay to maximize Novoheart’s ability to automate screening and drug classification and thereby accelerate the pursuit of safer and better drugs.

Novoheart aims to revolutionize drug discovery with its proprietary MyHeart Platform and is the only company in the world offering the unique hvCAS and ‘human heart-in-a-jar’ assays that can model the human heart in the laboratory and provide high-accuracy drug screening platforms for drug developers worldwide. The new ITC grant will support the development of the automated next generation of these human heart assays, with further enhanced throughput, accuracy and sensitivity in screening drugs for toxic or therapeutic effects on the heart. The platform has been designed to help drug developers increase their confidence in the selection and investment of candidate drugs that are most likely to succeed in clinical trials.