Harvard Bioscience Files Two Major Patents in Field of Regenerative Medicine
HOLLISTON, Mass., Dec. 9, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Harvard Bioscience, Inc. ("Harvard Bioscience," or the "Company") (Nasdaq:HBIO), a global developer, manufacturer and marketer of a broad range of specialized products used to advance life science research and regenerative medicine, has filed two major patents in the field of regenerative medicine, the first covering 61 claims for its stem cell therapy injectors and the second for 338 claims for bioreactors for organ growth.
David Green, President of Harvard Bioscience, commented, "This is an important milestone for Harvard Bioscience illustrating the value we place on our intellectual property in the emerging field of regenerative medicine. Our strategy is to supply tools to researchers and clinicians within the field of regenerative medicine, and completing these patent filings marks an important milestone in that plan."
Harvard Bioscience is collaborating with leading academics in the field of regenerative medicine to develop its regenerative medicine products. In 2009, the Company licensed the bioreactor technology underlying the world's first human transplant of a regenerated bronchus. The transplant was performed by Dr. Paolo Macchiarini at the Department of General Thoracic Surgery, Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, Spain and the work was published in The Lancet on November 19, 2008. This "InBreath" bioreactor is now commercially available. In 2010, the Company's Harvard Apparatus / Hugo Sachs Elektronik business collaborated with Dr. Harald Ott and Massachusetts General Hospital to design and manufacture a novel bioreactor that was used to grow a functional lung that was transplanted into a rat. The research was published online in Nature Medicine on July 13, 2010.
In addition to developing bioreactors, Harvard Bioscience is also developing a stem cell therapy injector based on its market leading Harvard Apparatus research syringe pump technology. The Company expects to submit this injector to the US FDA next year for approval for clinical use on patients.
About Harvard Bioscience
Harvard Bioscience ("HBIO") is a global developer, manufacturer and marketer of a broad range of specialized products, primarily apparatus and scientific instruments, used to advance life science research and regenerative medicine. We sell our products to thousands of researchers in over 100 countries primarily through our 850 page catalog (and various other specialty catalogs), our website, through distributors, including GE Healthcare, Thermo Fisher Scientific and VWR, and via our field sales organization. HBIO has sales and manufacturing operations in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain with additional facilities in France and Canada. For more information, please visit www.harvardbioscience.com.
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These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include the existence and size of opportunities in the behavior research market, the Company's failure to successfully expand its product offerings, introduce new products or commercialize new technologies, including in the field of regenerative medicine, decreased demand for the Company's products, including products in the field of regenerative medicine, due to changes in our customers' needs, our ability to obtain regulatory approvals, including FDA approval, for our products, including any products in the field of regenerative medicine, the current size or anticipated size of the regenerative medicine market, the existence and size of opportunities in the regenerative medicine market, our financial position, general economic outlook or other circumstances, overall economic trends, our ability to manage our growth, competition from our competitors, technological changes resulting in our products becoming obsolete, our ability to protect our intellectual property and operate without infringing on others' intellectual property, potential costs of any lawsuits to protect or enforce our intellectual property, research funding levels from endowments at our university customers, plus factors described under the heading "Item 1A. Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2009 or described in the Company's other public filings. The Company's results may also be affected by factors of which the Company is not currently aware. The Company may not update these forward-looking statements, even though its situation may change in the future, unless it has obligations under the federal securities laws to update and disclose material developments related to previously disclosed information.
CONTACT: Harvard Bioscience, Inc.
David Green, President
Chane Graziano, CEO
Tom McNaughton, CFO
508 893 8999
Fax: 508 892 6135