Biophan: Senate approves $400,000 research funding for MYO-VAD cardiac assist device

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, July 12 - Biophan Technologies, Inc. said Wednesday that the Senate Appropriations Committee has approved $400,000 in the fiscal year 2007 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill for research on the Myo-Vad cardiac assist device at the Rochester Heart Institute at Rochester General Hospital.

With the aid of this funding, Rochester Heart Institute and Myotech LLC will develop a new generation of minimally invasive cardiac assist devices for patients both in urban and rural communities, according to a company news release.

Existing cardiac assist devices are available only at specialized cardiac and transplant centers. The technically simple Myo-Vad promises to be available at virtually every hospital, officials said.

Myotech also is working with the Greater Rochester Enterprise to establish clinical research and device manufacturing capacity in Monroe County, N.Y., officials said.

The Myo-Vad employs a technology that has already saved human lives. It is the only device that can both restore a fully arrested heart and maintain full cardiac output from a weak or damaged heart, officials said.

The device can be installed in a three- to four-minute procedure, compared to current ventricular assist devices that take 30 to 45 minutes.

The Myo-Vad does not contact circulating blood, avoiding the complications of clotting and stroke, bleeding and infection that plague current ventricular assist devices.

The new funding is incremental to the previous $1 million that was announced last week by the House of Representatives, and brings to $1.4 million the combined allocation for the Myo-Vad project, officials said.

Biophan is a West Henrietta, N.Y., medical device company and has a minority interest in Myotech, also based in West Henrietta.

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