Abiomed to Appoint Seth Bilazarian, M.D., New Vice President of Interventional Cardiology Programs

DANVERS, Mass., Oct. 08, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Abiomed, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABMD), a leading provider of breakthrough heart support technologies, today announced that Seth Bilazarian, M.D. will be appointed as Vice President of Interventional Cardiology Programs, effective October 8, 2015.

"We are excited to welcome Dr. Seth Bilazarian to Abiomed, where he will add a specialized interventional cardiology perspective to the executive team that will further strengthen our mission to recover hearts and save lives. Seth has over 20 years of experience practicing interventional cardiology in the cath lab and has developed an expertise in hemodynamic support. His insight and knowledge will richly enhance our ongoing training and education initiatives for the new standard of care," said Michael R. Minogue, President, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Abiomed.

"I am thrilled to become part of the Abiomed team. As a user, I am very familiar with the benefits of Impella and know it is transforming the standard of care in treating complex patients. I am eager to collaborate with expert and experienced physician users in interventional cardiology and heart failure to develop best practices for use of the Impella platform in Protected PCI," said Seth Bilazarian, M.D.  "Educating physicians more broadly on the safe, effective and appropriate use of this technology will also be a focus. I am equally enthusiastic about the opportunity to begin working with industry colleagues to bring new devices within the Impella platform to market and continue the collaborative mission of recovering hearts."

Dr. Bilazarian is a clinical and interventional cardiologist and has performed coronary and peripheral interventions at Lahey Clinic, Boston University Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital and was Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory (Cath Lab) and Chief of the Cardiovascular Steering Committee at Lawrence General. Most recently, he was the Director of Clinical Cardiology Research Program and Clinical Cardiologist at Pentucket Medical Associates, LLC. He also serves on the faculty as an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School, where he has taught since 1995 and is the founder and director of the largest community based cardiac research program in the Partner's network.

Dr. Bilazarian is board certified in cardiovascular medicine, nuclear cardiology, vascular ultrasound, interventional cardiology, and vascular and endovascular medicine. Dr. Bilazarian is an active participant in outpatient clinical trials in congestive heart failure, hypertension, heart disease prevention, diabetes, anemia, atrial fibrillation, anti-inflammatory strategies for vascular prevention and anticoagulation and anti-platelet therapies. In 2008, he was appointed as physician advisor to the cardiac device panel of the Food & Drug Administration.

In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. Bilazarian is an active blogger in the physician community. His blog, "Practitioner's Corner with Dr. Seth Bilazarian" was established in 2009 and is hosted on theheart.org and MedScape (http://goo.gl/k5lZqA). He has written over 100 blog posts that cover various topics across the wide spectrum of interventional cardiology.

Dr. Bilazarian received a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in Chemical Engineering from Tufts University and MD from University of Massachusetts Medical School. He completed his internship and residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, and cardiology and interventional cardiology fellowship at Boston University Hospital and Boston City Hospital.

ABOUT ABIOMED
Based in Danvers, Massachusetts, Abiomed, Inc., is a leading provider of medical devices that provide circulatory support.  Our products are designed to enable the heart to rest by improving blood flow and/or performing the pumping of the heart.  For additional information please visit: www.abiomed.com.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our expectation of a smooth transition to a new Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, the Company's expectations of continued commercial growth, and future opportunities, including the opportunity to become the standard of care. The Company's actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements based upon a number of factors, including uncertainties associated with development, testing and related regulatory approvals, including the potential for future losses, complex manufacturing, high quality requirements, dependence on limited sources of supply, competition, technological change, government regulation, litigation matters, future capital needs and uncertainty of additional financing, and other risks and challenges detailed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the results of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances that occur after the date of this release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.