World Biomaterials Congress

Aortech International PLC 11 May 2000 AORTECH INTERNATIONAL PLC Results of New Heart Valve Project to be presented at World Biomaterials Congress, Hawaii AorTech International plc, ('AorTech') the Scottish-based manufacturer of cardiovascular devices, announces that during the week of May 15 - 20th at the World Biomaterials Congress in Hawaii, several key presentations will be made on progress with the development of the new AorTech flexible leaflet heart valve, and the new polymers used for its construction. A total of nine papers and presentations on the exciting and ground-breaking results from the multi-national development team will demonstrate to over 3000 scientists, clinicians and industry leaders the potential of arriving at a new synthetic valve with the new Elast-Eon material. AorTech International plc and its Australian wholly owned subsidiary Elastomedic Pty, are now in the advanced stages of laboratory testing of a revolutionary new heart valve prosthesis. The totally new bio-stable polyurethane material trademarked Elast-Eon, used in the construction of the leaflets for the new heart valve has been the subject of 12 years research and development by CSIRO, a major research centre in Sydney, Australia. The intellectual property and patents of this material is owned by Elastomedic who have been involved with the development and scale-up of the material. Dr. Meijs, a world-renowned scientist is giving a key note presentation at the opening of the Congress, showcasing these new developments. The new valve has been designed by a UK team involving the Universities of Glasgow, Leeds and Liverpool and AorTech, and in its current design is approaching final stages of durability and performance testing. The plans are to have a synthetic valve in clinical trials in patients by the end of 2001. Members of the team from the University of Glasgow will be presenting the results of the valve, showing how the combination of design and materials selection has led to valves performing for over 400 million beats in laboratory - equivalent to 10 years in a patient. The team from the University of Leeds, will be presenting the data on the existing design and haemodynamic performance of the valve, while the team from the University of Liverpool will discuss the biocompatability data. This data indicates that the valve is not expected to show any degradation or adverse effects on the blood or tissues of the patients. These materials combine properties of biocompatibility and resistance to degradation with excellent flexibility and processing properties and the company expects them to be valuable in many other forms of medical devices. AorTech and Elastomedic will be demonstrating the advantages and potential of this new biomaterial at the Congress in Hawaii. 11 May 2000 Enquiries: AorTech International plc Tel: 01698 746699 Eddie McDaid, Managing Director Ian Cameron, Finance Director AorTech International Inc., USA Tel: 734 827 2245 Bruno Lowinger, Vice President College Hill Tel: 020 7457 2020 Michael Padley / Nicholas Nelson For further information, visit AorTech's website at www.aortech.com Copies of this statement will be available for a period of 14 days from the Company's registered office: Phoenix Crescent, Strathclyde Business Park, Bellshill, Scotland ML4 3NU.