BEAT BioTherapeutics To Present New Data Supporting The Effectiveness Of BB-R12 In Treating Heart Failure

Dr. Michael Regnier Will Present at American Society For Gene and Cell Therapy Meeting

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BEAT BioTherapeutics Corporation (BEATBio) announced today that co-founder and Scientific Advisory Board member, Dr. Michael Regnier, will present at the upcoming American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy annual meeting on May 13, 2015, in New Orleans, LA. Dr. Regnier will speak about “Gene Therapy Mediated Increase in dATP Improves Cardiac Performance in Models of Systolic Heart Failure.” He will summarize his recent work with BEATBio’s BB-R12 gene therapy being developed for the treatment of human heart failure, and he will also present data from new studies in mouse models of familial dilated cardiomyopathy, another cause of human heart failure.

“Gene Therapy Mediated Increase in dATP Improves Cardiac Performance in Models of Systolic Heart Failure.”

Dr. Regnier said, “Heart failure is caused by a weakened heart but the condition has many causes. The purpose of these new studies was to see if our approach to the treatment of heart failure through the use of deoxy-ATP (dATP) would work when the heart failure was caused by a genetic defect in cardiac muscle protein. Our preliminary results suggest that it does.”

BEATBio is developing BB-R12, a gene therapy that increases cardiac levels of dATP. “Our prior data, including a recently published large-animal heart failure study, shows that BB-R12 can boost cardiac performance independently of calcium regulation, the target of SERCA2a. Human heart failure is a very large and growing unmet need and when gene therapy finds the right target to treat, many patients will be better off,” said Dr. Sam Teichman, BEATBio’s vice-president of research and development and chief medical officer.

Dr. Regnier is Professor and Vice Chairman of the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington. He also leads the Heart and Muscle Mechanics laboratory in the Department of Bioengineering and is an expert in cardiac and skeletal muscle physiology, muscle dysfunction with disease and development of gene and cell therapies. Dr. Regnier is part of a multi-disciplinary team at BEATBio developing BB-R12.

About BEATBio: BEATBio is a Seattle, WA based biotechnology company focused on the development of BB-R12, a novel biological treatment for heart failure. BEATBio’s founders, from the University of Washington, are recognized experts in cardiovascular biology, muscle physiology and bioengineering and have received nearly $50MM of NIH funding. BEATBio holds exclusive, worldwide rights to the BB-R12 technology they developed and has used a $4 million seed financing to successfully complete the initial stages of pre-clinical development and manufacturing scale-up. BEATBio has assembled a strong team of experts that has allowed rapid achievement of significant development milestones in 2013-2014. The company is now raising a Series A financing to complete IND-enabling studies and complete Phase I human trials. (www.beatbiotherapeutics.com)