South Florida Business Journal -- Karl Groth resigned as chairman and director of Bioheart, and has been replaced by William P. Murphy Jr, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It gave no reason for his departure.
Groth heads the Ascent Medical Technology Funds, a major investor in the Sunrise-based biotechnology company (OTCBB: BHRT). He took over as chairman, CEO and president in August 2009. In June, he relinquished the president and CEO posts to Miami investor Mike Tomas.
Peggy Farley, Groth’s partner at Ascent, also stepped down as a Bioheart executive and board member.
Murphy has been on Bioheart’s board since 2003. He was among the founders of Cordis Corp., a medical instrumentation manufacturer that started in Miami and was sold to Johnson & Johnson. Murphy was chairman, CEO and president of Cordis at several points before retiring from the company in 1985.
Murphy won the Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003 and was inducted into the Investor’s Hall of Fame in 2008. He also won the Jay Malina Award from Miami-Dade County’s Beacon Council.
“I am pleased to lend my experience and guidance to the very accomplished Bioheart staff,” Murphy said in a news release. “We have already gathered evidence of the importance of using live muscle cells implanted in myocardial scar tissue as a way of helping the heart to do its job as a pump. The company is immediately ready to initiate a broadened and controlled clinical validation of its therapeutic system.”
Bioheart also announced that its annual shareholder meeting has been postponed until sometime next year.
Bioheart shares were unchanged at 33 cents in afternoon trading. The 52-week high was $1.05 on Nov. 10, 2009. The 52-week low was 10 cents on Aug. 24.
