Sunrise, FL – January 29, 2015 – Bioheart, Inc., a Florida Corporation (BHRT.OB), an emerging enterprise in the regenerative medicine / cellular therapy industry announced today the appointment of Martin E. Schmieg as President of Vetbiologics, Inc., the Company’s wholly owned animal health subsidiary.
“Bioheart’s animal health subsidiary, Vetbiologics, is an important part of our growth strategy,” said Mike Tomas, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Martin brings a wealth of leadership and hands on tactical experience to Vetbiologics as well as strategic financial, marketing and operations knowledge to Bioheart. We are very excited to have Martin join the Bioheart team and we mark his appointment as a significant achievement toward our 2015 milestones.”
Martin, with 35 years of business experience, is a “C” level executive with a diversified background in the global biotech, med-tech and pharmaceutical industries. As a hands-on leader, Martin’s early career focused on accounting and financial management responsibilities serving as chief financial officer to Cytometrics, Inc., Advanced Bionics Corporation, Sirna Therapeutics, Inc. and Isolagen, Inc. With Cytometrics, he raised $55 million in four rounds of venture capital financing to bring the company’s Cytoscan® instrument to market. With Advanced Bionics, he was the financial architect of the 2 company’s $4.2 billion sale to Boston Scientific. In 2006, Martin assumed the position of Chief Executive Office of Freedom-2, Inc., a venture startup in novel dermatology applications. While at Freedom-2, Martin raised $14 million in venture capital and led the company in the development and market introduction of InfinitInk®, which was a 2008 Time Magazine “Invention of the Year.” Since 2010, Martin has been providing strategic services to the cell/gene therapy industry including engagements with Beckman Genomics, NeoStem, Sapientia Pharmaceuticals and Calimmune. Martin is widely acknowledged as a leader in emerging company corporate, financial and product development. In 2014, Martin founded ClearIt, LLC and Pic-Right, LLC, startup companies in the dermatology and computer applications markets respectively. Martin holds a BS from LaSalle University, Philadelphia, PA. He is a certified public accountant and has been a guest lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania and MIT.
“I believe Vetbiologics has the products and potential to become the global market leader in the cell therapy animal health treatments market,” said Martin Schmieg. “Today, cellular therapy is a small percentage of the estimated 2014 $15 billion U.S. vet care industry. As veterinarians and animal owners become more aware of the efficacy and cost benefit of cell therapy treatments, the animal health cell therapy market will organically expand. Our goal is to seed the market with the information it needs, provide the highest quality products and market cell therapy as the standard of care for arthritis, joint injuries and ligament injuries in cats, dogs and horses. I am extremely excited to be working with Mike Tomas, Kristin Comella and the entire Bioheart and Vetbiologics team and look forward to reporting our accomplishments in the future as we achieve our strategic goals.”
About Bioheart, Inc.
Bioheart, Inc. is committed to maintaining its leading position within the cardiovascular sector of the cell technology industry delivering cell therapies and biologics that help address congestive heart failure, lower limb ischemia, chronic heart ischemia, acute myocardial infarctions and other issues. Bioheart’s goals are to cause damaged tissue to be regenerated, when possible, and to improve a patient’s quality of life and reduce health care costs and hospitalizations. Specific to biotechnology, Bioheart is focused on the discovery, development and, subject to regulatory approval, commercialization of autologous cell therapies for the treatment of chronic and acute heart damage and peripheral vascular disease. Its leading product, MyoCell, is a clinical muscle-derived cell therapy designed to populate regions of scar tissue within a patient’s heart with new living cells for the purpose of improving cardiac function in chronic heart failure patients. For more information on Bioheart, visit www.bioheartinc.com, or visit us on Facebook: Bioheart and Twitter @BioheartInc.
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