Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Approves Reimbursement for BioCardia’s CardiAMP Cell Therapy in Pivotal Clinical Trial Studying Second Indication in Chronic Myocardial Ischemia

“We are thankful for the CMS decision to approve reimbursement for our potentially life-changing, pivotal clinical study in chronic myocardial ischemia,” said Eric Duckers, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer of BioCardia. “Medicare reimbursement in the pivotal trial for our second indication of the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System significantly enhances the Company’s ability to complete this important trial, which if successful, has the potential to provide the first approved cell therapy in the U.S. for patients suffering from chronic refractory angina (RA).”

The CardiAMP Chronic Myocardial Ischemia (CMI) Trial is a prospective, multi-center, randomized, sham-controlled, patient- and evaluator-blinded pivotal trial to validate the safety and efficacy of CardiAMP investigational cell therapy in the treatment of patients having CMI with refractory angina. The trial has been approved to enroll up to 343 subjects at up to 40 U.S. centers. This trial has the potential to support functional benefit claims sufficient for product registration without a second confirmatory trial.

In the U.S., it is estimated that between 600,000 and 1.8 million patients suffer from RA, with approximately 75,000 new cases diagnosed each year. Despite improvements in revascularization techniques, there is a growing population of patients with chronic RA not amenable to further revascularization that suffer with severely limiting symptoms. These patients suffer from poor perceived health status and psychological distress, have significant impairment in quality of life, and represent a burden to the healthcare system due to significant use of resources. Current therapies have limitations or are associated with minimal reduction in angina.

This second clinical indication of chronic myocardial ischemia with refractory angina for the CardiAMP investigational cell therapy follows the company’s FDA-approved pivotal clinical trial of CardiAMP cell therapy in ischemic heart failure, which is currently enrolling patients at up to 40 centers in the U.S. ¹

“CMS approval of reimbursement for the CardiAMP CMI Trial is an important milestone for the company,” said BioCardia CEO Peter Altman. “It is a positive step towards developing a new treatment strategy that could have tremendous benefit for patients with refractory angina. This decision by CMS enables BioCardia to offset significant clinical research costs and may enable us to complete pivotal trials for both indications without a strategic partner. The investigational heart failure and chronic myocardial ischemia pivotal trials provide BioCardia with two distinct pivotal clinical programs where clinical data to-date supports that patients will have improved quality of life and reduced mortality, with no treatment-related cardiac complications.”

Covered costs in the trial are anticipated to include patient screening, the CardiAMP Cell Therapy System and procedure, and clinical follow-up at one and two years after the procedure. Private insurance plans covering 50 million insured Americans follow this CMS reimbursement policy and are similarly anticipated to cover these costs in the clinical trial.

About BioCardia®

BioCardia, Inc., headquartered in San Carlos, CA, is developing regenerative biologic therapies to treat cardiovascular disease. CardiAMP and CardiALLO cell therapies are the Company’s biotherapeutic product candidates in clinical development. The Company's current products include the Helix™ transendocardial delivery system and the Morph® steerable guide and sheath catheter portfolio. BioCardia also partners with other biotherapeutic companies to provide its Helix systems and clinical support to their programs studying therapies for the treatment of heart failure, chronic myocardial ischemia and acute myocardial infarction.

The CardiAMP investigational cell therapy takes a personalized and minimally-invasive approach to the use of a patient’s own cells (autologous cells) in the treatment of cardiovascular disease. The investigational therapy is designed to stimulate the body’s natural healing response. The CardiAMP Cell Therapy System is investigational and limited by Federal Law to investigational use.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to many risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include, among other things, references to the efficacy and safety of our products and therapies, statements regarding our intentions, beliefs, projections, outlook, analyses or current expectations. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with developing new products or technologies, regulatory approvals, unexpected expenditures, the ability to raise the additional funding needed to continue to pursue BioCardia’s business and product development plans and overall market conditions. We may find it difficult to enroll patients in our clinical trials, which could delay or prevent development of our therapeutic candidates. The rate of enrollment will depend upon the number of clinical sites and their ability to recruit patients that fit our trial profiles, and there could be delays beyond our control. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release, and BioCardia assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements.

We may use terms such as “believes,” “estimates,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “plans,” “intends,” “may,” “could,” “might,” “will,” “should,” “approximately” or other words that convey the uncertainty of future events or outcomes to identify these forward-looking statements. Although we believe that we have a reasonable basis for each forward-looking statement contained herein, we caution you that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and that our actual results may differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. As a result of these factors, we cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements in this press release will prove to be accurate. Additional factors that could materially affect actual results can be found in BioCardia’s Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 16, 2018, including under the caption titled “Risk Factors.” BioCardia expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

¹ Raval AN, Cook TD, Duckers HJ, Johnston PV, Traverse JH, Abraham WT, Altman PA, Pepin CJ. The CardiAMP Heart Failure trial: A randomized controlled pivotal trial of high-dose autologous bone marrow mononuclear cells using the CardiAMP cell therapy system in patients with post–myocardial infarction heart failure: Trial rationale and study design, American Heart Journal, 2018 (IN PRESS).

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