CardiAQ Valve Technologies (“CVT”) completes move of its headquarters to a specialized facility in Irvine, Calif., and announces expansion of its product development team

IRVINE, Calif., June 1, 2010—Transcatheter heart valve company CardiAQ Valve Technologies (“CVT”), which is developing the world’s first self-conforming and self-anchoring technology for Transcatheter Mitral Valve Implantation (TMVI), announced today that it has established operations in Irvine, Calif. The 8,500-square-foot operation is a state-of-the-art research, development and manufacturing facility—with microbiology, biochemical, tissue-handling fixation, and tissuevalve- production capabilities. It includes two GMP-certified ‘clean rooms’ for immediate pilot production capability of tissue valves and catheters.

“While there is much work to be done, we are extremely pleased with the acceleration of our TMVI platform development since the completion of our Series A funding. We look forward to benefiting from the tremendous resources afforded to CVT by our recent move to this facility, which was occupied by CoreValve until just last year,” said Brent Ratz, CVT’s President and CEO. “CVT is also fortunate to have bolstered its core team with the addition of several former senior technical executives from CoreValve. We look forward to now rapidly moving toward the final stages of completing our proprietary designs of a novel pericardial mitral valve and its corresponding catheter for percutaneous delivery.”

About CardiAQ Valve Technologies
Privately held CVT, headquartered in Irvine, Calif., has developed a proprietary system for Transcatheter Mitral Valve Implantation (TMVI). Through the combination of a unique anchoring mechanism and a novel delivery catheter, physicians will be able to accurately and securely implant a new mitral valve within a beating heart, thus avoiding open-heart surgery. The CVT procedure is designed to be performed in a cardiac catheterization laboratory similar to angioplasty or stenting, resulting in less trauma to the patient and substantial cost-savings to the healthcare system.

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