Independent Publication Reports Neovasc Reducer™ Demonstrates Cost Savings

Research, News, and Market Data on Neovasc

 

VANCOUVER and MINNEAPOLIS, Feb. 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — via NewMediaWire — Neovasc, Inc. (Neovasc or the Company) (NASDAQ, TSX: NVCN) today announced the publication of cost-effectiveness studies supporting the use of the Neovasc Reducer™ (“Reducer”).

The two analyses, authored by Americo Cicchetti, Graduate School of Health Economics and Management (ALTEMS) at the Catholic University of Sacro Cuore, Rome, included a budget impact analysis and a cost-utility analysis. The evaluations, both of which were positive for the Reducer therapy, considered direct healthcare costs from the perspective of the National Health Service in Italy. The budget impact analysis examined a five-year timeframe, while the cost-utility analysis utilized a “lifetime” horizon.

Quality of life measures

• The budget impact analysis and cost-utility model each demonstrated that the Reducer therapy can lead to an increase in the quality of life in patients with refractory angina.

Cost effectiveness measures

• In the cost-utility analysis, the Reducer therapy received the best possible outcome, a dominance profile, meaning the intervention is not just cost-effective, but cost-saving for the healthcare system.

• In the budget impact analysis, the higher initial costs due an initial ramp in Reducer implants are adequately compensated in the short term by the better clinical outcomes, with consequent savings for the National Health Service in Italy starting in year four.

The authors highlight the growing number of patients suffering from persistent and disabling symptoms of angina – in part due to the advances in pharmacological and interventional fields that have prolonged the survival of patients.

Dr. Fabrizio Oliva, Director of Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology, Niguarda Hospital, Milan, and President-elect of the Italian National Association of Hospital Cardiologists, commented, “We see patients with refractory angina frequently. A therapy that improves quality of life and is less costly to implement is highly unusual and should be highlighted. The data are particularly relevant in the context of strong budget constraints in many countries – a constraint that has been exacerbated by the COVID pandemic.”

“The data from the ALTEMS analyses are particularly relevant because patients with refractory angina have limited treatment options, and they tend to place a hefty financial burden on healthcare systems,” commented Fred Colen, President and Chief Executive Officer of Neovasc. “The new Italian publication builds upon our previously reported cost-effectiveness data and recent reimbursement wins in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the United States and it demonstrates fantastic progress against our objectives.”

About Reducer

The Reducer is CE-marked in the European Union and being studied in the United States in the COSIRA-III clinical trial for the treatment of refractory angina, a painful and debilitating condition that occurs when the coronary arteries deliver an inadequate supply of blood to the heart muscle, despite treatment with standard revascularization or cardiac drug therapies. It affects millions of patients worldwide, who typically lead severely restricted lives as a result of their disabling symptoms, and its incidence is growing. The Reducer provides relief of angina symptoms by altering blood flow within the myocardium of the heart and increasing the perfusion of oxygenated blood to ischemic areas of the heart muscle.

Refractory angina, resulting in continued symptoms despite maximal medical therapy and without revascularization options, is estimated to affect 600,000 to 1.8 million Americans, with 50,000 to 100,000 new cases per year.

About Neovasc Inc.

Neovasc is a specialty medical device company that develops, manufactures, and markets products for the rapidly growing cardiovascular marketplace. Its products include Reducer, for the treatment of refractory angina, which is not currently commercially available in the United States and has been commercially available in Europe since 2015, and Tiara™ for the transcatheter treatment of mitral valve disease, which is currently under clinical investigation in the United States, Canada, Israel and Europe. For more information, visit: www.neovasc.com.

Contacts

Investors:

Mike Cavanaugh

ICR Westwicke

Phone: +1.617.877.9641

Email: Mike.Cavanaugh@westwicke.com

Media:

Sean Leous

ICR Westwicke

Phone: +1.646.866.4012

Email: Sean.Leous@westwicke.com

Forward-Looking Statement Disclaimer

Certain statements in this news release contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws that may not be based on historical fact. When used herein, the words “expect”, “anticipate”, “estimate”, “may”, “will”, “should”, “intend,” “believe”, and similar expressions, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements may involve, but are not limited to, the results of the cost-effectiveness studies, the growing incidence of refractory angina and the growing cardiovascular marketplace. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions made by the Company in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, market and other conditions as well as other factors that the Company believes are appropriate in the circumstances. Many factors could cause the Company’s actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including those described in the “Risk Factors” section of the Company’s Annual Information Form and in the Management’s Discussion and Analysis for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021 (copies of which may be obtained at www.sedar.com or www.sec.gov). These factors should be considered carefully, and readers should not place undue reliance on the Company’s forward-looking statements. The Company has no intention and undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

  Image: ACS Laboratories

The Viral Landscape and the Seven that Can Lead to Cancer

 

One-fifth. Nearly 20% of cancers worldwide are caused by a virus.

These viruses don’t cause cancer until long after they initially infect a person. Rather, the viruses teach the cells they take over how to escape the natural biological process of cell death. This strategy sets these altered cells on a path for other genetic changes that can cause full-blown cancer years down the road.

 

This article was republished with permission from The Conversation, a news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It represents the research-based findings and opinions of Ronald C. Desrosiers, Professor of Pathology, Vice-chair for Research, University of Miami

 

As a microbiologist and researcher of viruses, I seek to understand how viruses affect living cells and the health of the people who are infected. These particular viruses are unique and interesting, both for their effects on patients and because of the potential ways they might be treated or prevented.

 

The Viral Landscape

All known viruses can be categorized into one of 22 distinct families. Five of these families are called “persisting,” because once a person is infected, the virus remains in their body for life. One example is the herpes virus that causes chickenpox in children and can reappear later in life as shingles. This ability to survive over the long term helps the virus spread from person to person.

There are seven known viruses that can cause cancer. Five of them are members of persistent virus families. The human papillomavirus, commonly known as HPV and known to cause cervical cancer, is in the papilloma family. The Epstein-Barr virus, which causes Hodgkin lymphomas, and the Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated virus, are both in the herpes family. The human T-lymphotropic virus, which can cause a type of leukemia, is what’s known as a retrovirus. And Merkel cell polyoma virus, which causes Merkel cell carcinoma, is in the polyoma family.

All five of these viruses contain genetic code for one or more proteins that teach cells how to avoid cell death, effectively immortalizing them and promoting cell growth. The cancer cells that develop from these oncogenic viruses all contain their original viruses’ genetic information, even when they appear years after the initial infection. But only a small percentage of people who are infected with one of these five oncogenic viruses ultimately develop the full-blown cancer associated with it.

The other two viruses, hepatitis B, in the hepadna family, and hepatitis C, in the flavi family, are somewhat different. Most people infected with those viruses are able to fight the infection through their own immunity and eliminate the virus.

However, in people who are not able to fight off the infection, long-term infections of these viruses often cause extensive liver damage. These people are at risk of developing a type of liver cancer called hepatocellular carcinoma, because the body’s attempts to repair the damaged liver tissue increase the chance of a cancer-related mutation. The viruses themselves do not teach the liver cells to become immortal or transform themselves, the way the other five oncogenic viruses do to the cells they target.

These viral-induced cancers are serious health threats. Hepatocellular carcinoma, for instance, kills approximately 800,000 people a year, making it the third-deadliest cancer globally. About three-quarters of those killed have had hepatitis virus infections in the past.

HPV is similarly dangerous. The cervical cancer it causes kills some 311,000 people a year worldwide, making it the deadliest cancer in women until recently. That number includes 36,000 women in the U.S. But HPV doesn’t just put women at risk. A similar number of people in the U.S. die each year from anal and throat cancers linked to HPV.

 

 

Reasons for Optimism

The first viral vaccine to protect against HPV infection and its associated cancers was approved for use in the U.S. in 2006. It has proved to be highly effective at preventing both HPV infection and the subsequent development of cervical carcinoma.

HPV vaccines are now widely available around the globe. The HPV vaccine is safe, with very mild side effects. It is recommended for children starting at ages 11 to 12, since different individuals become sexually active at different ages. The protective effects of the vaccine last beyond 10 years, and booster shots are available.

Older people – typically up to 26 years of age – can also receive the HPV vaccine. By preventing infection in the first place, the vaccine also prevents the subsequent cancers that may result from a viral infection.

The vaccine for hepatitis B virus has been similarly successful over a longer time period. Introduced in 1986, it was recognized as the first anti-cancer vaccine. Since then, more than a billion people worldwide have received it. The vaccine has been shown to be extremely safe and effective.

 

Vaccines
Save Lives

The numbers of cancers prevented and lives saved by the vaccines against the hepatitis B virus and human papillomavirus are enormous and indisputable. In 2019, 46% of adolescents ages 13 to 17 in the U.S. had not received their recommended HPV vaccines. In 2020 in Mississippi, HPV vaccine coverage in adolescents reached a meager 32%.

But the U.S. is better off than some other industrialized nations. In Japan, the current rate of HPV vaccine coverage in adolescents is less than 1% because of false reports of adverse events in 2013. Despite repeated, definitive discrediting of these claims, vaccine uptake in Japan has not rebounded.

Vaccination campaigns have eradicated smallpox and effectively eliminated polio, measles and certain other infectious diseases. Let’s hope that ongoing vaccine efforts can make HPV-induced cancers and hepatitis B virus-induced cancers a thing of the past as well.

 

Suggested Reading

How Diet Affects Tumors

Learning to Speak the Language of Viruses

Understanding the FDA Medical Device Approval Pathways Helps Investors

The Results of the Last Five Years of Market Crash Talk

 

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