Leibman jumps ship to Heartware

Howard Leibman, who advised Heartware (ASX:HTW) during its recent ASX-listing as an associate director of specialist biotech investment bank Emerging Growth Capital, has been poached by the artificial heart company.

Leibman will be working in the Sydney corporate head office of Heartware as director, corporate development.

"I worked very closely with [Heartware] during the due diligence process. It was a fantastic opportunity to do some homework on the company," said Leibman. "I realised that if ever there was a medical device or a company on which I'd back my career in the medium term, this was the one."

Alison Coutts, director at specialist investment bank Emerging Growth Capital said she is sad to lose such a valued member of the team.

"The slight compensation is that at least he's going to a client and it's where he really wants to be. When he saw Heartware it really captured his imagination," she said.

Late last year, Sydney artificial heart firm Ventracor issued a lawsuit alleging that Heartware's left-ventricular assist device (HVAD) infringed on the patents underlying Ventracor's ventricular assist device. Both devices are designed to aid the heart's ventricles in pumping blood around the body.

Leibman said that a date has not yet been set for the hearing to determine whether the suit will proceed to trial. He expects this hearing to occur in the next couple of months.

"While we are confident of our IP stance, a legal dispute is an unnecessary distraction," said Leibmen. "We would frankly rather see both companies getting on with the job on their various devices."

Heartware is progressing with its good laboratory practice (GLP) trials of HVAD in sheep and Leibman said that clinical trials are on track to occur by the end of this year or the first quarter of 2006.

Animal trials of the company's second-generation device, a miniaturised VAD, will begin in the next couple of months according to Leibman.

Prior to his role at Emerging Growth Capital, Leibman was executive director at Aeris Technologies (ASX:AEI) and design engineer at General Electric.

Heartware has also appointed William Rissman as vice-president of manufacturing and product development at the company's US facility and Jane Reedy as vice president of clinical and marketing.