Microvascular Therapeutics Receives $1.6M Grant from National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health

Tucson, AZ, April 16, 2018 --(PR.com)-- Microvascular Therapeutics (MVT), a Tucson based biotechnology company, announced that it has been awarded a $1.6M grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

Jennifer Marshall, CFO of MVT, said, “This grant will enable us to develop a patented (US Patent: US9801959B2) improved ultrasound contrast agent, MVT-100. The inventors at Microvascular Therapeutics originally developed the formulation for use as a contrast agent for ultrasound imaging, which is now owned by Lantheus Medical Imaging, Inc., MA, USA, and marketed under the name Definity®, the world’s #1 selling ultrasound contrast agent. Definity generated sales of about $157M last year and is growing nearly 20% a year.”1

Wyatt Unger, Chief Medical Officer of MVT added, “Definity requires refrigerated storage. MVT-100, our new ultrasound contrast agent, may afford room temperature storage and may also have other advantages. Microvascular Therapeutics has received formal guidance from the FDA that MVT-100 will be developed by the 505(b)(2) pathway, affording an accelerated path to regulatory approval.”

Thomas Porter, MD, Theodore F. Hubbard Distinguished Chair of Cardiology at University of Nebraska Medical Center, an internationally recognized authority on echocardiography and ultrasound contrast, said, “Ultrasound contrast is FDA approved for use in echocardiography and Definity is a very effective product. MVT-100 has the potential to become a widely used product in echocardiography. I am very pleased to serve as principal investigator on this project to help Microvascular Therapeutics gain FDA approval. I am also excited about the other projects that MVT has in its pipeline that may further expand the applications of ultrasound contrast agents.”

1 Lantheus 10-K, Dec 2017; http://investor.lantheus.com/sec-filings/sec-filing/10-k/0001628280-18-002261

About the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the NIH
Part of the National Institutes of Health, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) plans, conducts, and supports research related to the causes, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of heart, blood vessel, lung, and blood diseases; and sleep disorders. The Institute also administers national health education campaigns on women and heart disease, healthy weight for children, and other topics. NHLBI press releases and other materials are available online at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov. The work cited above was supported by the NHLBI under Award Number 1R44HL137447-01A1. The content of this release is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

About Microvascular Therapeutics, LLC (MVT)
MicroVascular Therapeutics is a biotechnology company based in Tucson, Arizona and is a leader in microbubble technology. MVT’s mission is to develop the next generation of contrast agents for diagnostic ultrasound and advance the field of ultrasound for diagnosis and treatment of disease. The chemists at MVT have developed a new, patented formulation that may potentially serve as a platform for development of agents for molecular imaging and image-guided therapy. (www.mvtpharma.com)

For further information please contact Jennifer Marshall at j.marshall@mvtpharma.com.