Agreement finalized for commercialization of stent coating technology

Vancouver, BC March 6, 2003 MIV Therapeutics and the University of British Columbia (UBC) have completed two license agreements to facilitate the transfer of UBC’s HAp coating technology to MIV Therapeutics research and manufacturing facility for commercial development.

The HAp coating was discovered at UBC and has been co-developed by MIVT and UBC under a collaborative research agreement.

“The transfer of the HAp technology to MIVT’s manufacturing facility enables our engineering staff to optimize the process controlled parameters determining the uniformity, consistency, producibility and porosity of the HAp coating,” says Alan Lindsay, chairman, president and CEO of MIV Therapeutics.

“We are extremely pleased with the successful and smooth transition of this important propriety technology from the laboratory environment of the university into our strictly controlled research and manufacturing environment at MIVI,” adds Arc Rajtar, VP operations of MIVI Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of MIV Therapeutics. “The acquisition of sophisticated coating equipment is now complete. We are making rapid progress with the optimization of coating technologies for stainless steel and cobalt-chromium stents in preparation for the next significant stage of development of our advanced coating technologies.”

MIV Therapeutics believes that its HAp biocompatible coating for stents offers significant advantages for angioplasty patients. The company’s HAp coating has been developed to coat metal stents with a biocompatible coating that will protect the arteries from exposure to the bare metal stent.

MIV Therapeutics and the University of British Columbia’s phase II development program allows the company to focus on its multi-layer coating, which incorporates controlled levels of porosity for drug elution purposes.

Dr Tom Troczynski of the Metals and Materials Department at UBC and VP of coatings for MIV Therapeutics has received a scientific research grant by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for this project.

The company’s research and manufacturing facility in Vancouver, BC, is equipped to manufacture both the MIVT laser-cut stents and hydroxyapatite biocompatible coated stents. The move to in-house development has involved substantial investment in specialized coating equipment and included procurement and commissioning of modern coating chambers and a “state of the art” industrial oven required to support HAp coating techniques.