SAN CARLOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BioCardia (OTC: BCDA), a leader in the development of comprehensive solutions for cardiovascular regenerative therapies, today announced the appointment of Ian McNiece, PhD, as chief scientific officer of the company. Dr. McNiece has spent 30 years in both academic and commercial settings working in the areas of stem cell biology and clinical manufacturing for bone marrow transplantation and cellular therapy clinical applications.
Dr. McNiece has been a collaborator with BioCardia since 2007, directing manufacturing of stem cell products and clinical, manufacturing and control (CMC) development for several important clinical trials co-sponsored by the company, including TAC-HFT and POSEIDON.
Earlier in his career, he led development of cellular therapies at Amgen Inc. as laboratory head in the Department of Developmental Hematology, where he was also involved in the development of Filgrastim, Neulasta and Stemgen. Subsequently, he returned to academia and served as professor of medicine at several leading institutions, including MD Anderson Cancer Center (2012 to 2016), the University of Miami (2007 to 2012), Johns Hopkins University (2003 to 2007), and the University of Colorado Health Science Center (1997 to 2002).
Dr. McNiece received his PhD in Physiology from the University of Melbourne and performed his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.
“Ian has a tremendous pedigree and work ethic. He has been a valued collaborator for BioCardia as we undertook several important studies leading to our current Phase 3 CardiAMP study and our anticipated CardiALLO clinical study in heart failure,” said BioCardia CEO Peter Altman, PhD. “In his capacity as chief scientific officer, he will bring his expertise and leadership to our cell development and manufacturing team.”
BioCardia is the developer of the investigational CardiAMP therapy, which is designed to stimulate the body’s natural healing response. The therapy utilizes a personalized and minimally-invasive approach to the use of autologous bone marrow stem cells in the treatment of ischemic heart failure. Patients are screened for bone marrow characteristics that may result in a higher likelihood of their benefiting from the therapy. Likely responders are scheduled for therapy where they receive a high target dose of 200 million mononuclear cells directly to damaged regions of the heart using a delivery system that has been shown to result in superior cell delivery.
The company is currently conducting the CardiAMP Heart Failure Trial at up to 40 clinical centers in the United States. Patients interested in learning about the study can visit www.cardiamp.com or www.clinicaltrials.gov, Identifier NCT02438306, for more information.
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. For
more information, visit www.BioCardia.com.
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