SUNRISE, Fla., July 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Bioheart, Inc. a biotechnology company that is focused on the development of autologous (patient-derived) cell therapies and devices for the treatment of chronic and acute heart damage, today announced it has been added to the Russell Microcap Index after the Russell Investment Group reconstituted its comprehensive set of U.S. and global equity indexes on June 27, 2008.
According to the Russell Investment Group, the Russell indexes are widely used by investment managers and institutional investors for index funds and as benchmarks for passive and active investment strategies. The Company will hold its membership until Russell reconstitutes its indexes in June 2009.
"We are pleased with our inclusion in this index, which reflects our continued momentum," said William Kline, Chief Financial Officer, Bioheart, Inc. "We are confident that our inclusion in this index will generate greater interest in our stock among institutional investors."
The Russell Microcap Index measures the performance of the microcap segment of the U.S. equity market. It includes 1,000 of the smallest securities in the small-cap Russell 2000(R) Index based on a combination of their market cap and current index membership as well as the next 1,000 securities below the index.
ABOUT BIOHEART, INC.
Bioheart, Inc. is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and, subject to regulatory approval, commercialization of autologous cell therapies for the treatment of chronic and acute heart damage. Its lead product candidate, MyoCell(R), is an innovative clinical 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. The Company's pipeline includes multiple product candidates for the treatment of heart damage, including Bioheart Acute Cell Therapy, an autologous, adipose cell treatment for acute heart damage, and MyoCell(R) SDF-1, a therapy utilizing autologous cells that are genetically modified to express additional potentially therapeutic growth proteins. For more information on Bioheart, visit http://www.bioheartinc.com.
MyoCell and MyoCell SDF-1 are trademarks of Bioheart, Inc.
About Russell:
Russell Investment Group aims to improve financial security for people by providing strategic advice, world-class implementation, state-of-the-art performance benchmarks, and a range of institutional-quality investment products. With more than $200 billion in assets under management, Russell serves individual, institutional and advisor clients in more than 40 countries. Russell provides access to some of the world's best money managers. It helps investors put this access to work in corporate defined benefit and defined contribution plans, and in the life savings of individual investors. Russell's indexes are unmanaged and cannot be invested in directly. For more information on Russell indexes, go to http://www.russell.com/.
CONTACT: William Kline, Chief Financial Officer of Bioheart, Inc.,
+1-954-835-1500; or Joe Diaz, Joe Dorame, or Robert Blum, all of Lytham
Partners, LLC, +1-602-889-9700, for Bioheart, Inc.
Web site: http://www.bioheartinc.com/