SAN DIEGO, May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Sangart, Inc., a privately held biopharmaceutical company focused on the research, development and commercialization of therapeutic oxygen transport agents today announced that it has completed enrollment in the second Phase III trial of its lead product, Hemospan(R).
Sangart expects the top line results from this trial to be available in the second half of 2008.
The 370-patient randomized, double-blind, controlled Phase III study was conducted at 18 clinical sites in six European countries. Together with another Phase III study completed in March, the trials were designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Hemospan for preventing and treating hemodynamic instability, particularly hypotension, or low blood pressure, during primary hip replacement surgery.
Dr. Robert Winslow, Chairman, President and CEO of Sangart, commented, “The completed enrollment in this second Phase III trial represents another significant milestone for Sangart as we advance the development of Hemospan.”
No similar oxygen transport agents are currently on the market in Europe or the United States. Extensive preclinical efficacy studies and earlier clinical trials indicate that Hemospan’s novel oxygen delivery mechanism has the potential to enhance oxygenation of ischemic tissues and may provide a safe and effective alternative to blood transfusion, especially when blood is not immediately available.
About Sangart
Sangart is a privately held San Diego-based biopharmaceutical company focused on the research, development and commercialization of medical products designed for use as therapeutic oxygen transport agents and potential alternatives to blood transfusions.
Dr. Robert Winslow, a world-renowned authority in the field of oxygen transport, founded Sangart in 1998. In the two decades prior to founding Sangart, Dr. Winslow and his colleagues studied and defined mechanisms of oxygen transport by cell-free hemoglobin solutions, funded by competitive grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense. The counterintuitive discoveries by Dr. Winslow’s group on the effective action of oxygen transport agents have been patented and published in numerous scientific articles. From this experience, Sangart’s lead product, Hemospan, was designed using unique polyethylene glycol conjugation to create a hemoglobin-based product that is intended to serve as an alternative to transfusion of donor blood.
The key breakthroughs in the development of Hemospan were the understanding of the mechanisms of vasoconstriction and the development of simplified production methods that are designed to make the final product commercially viable. These breakthroughs laid the groundwork for Sangart’s business concept of developing cost-effective oxygen transport agents that can be used in lieu of transfused red blood cells during episodes of temporary blood loss, such as surgery or trauma.
To learn more about Sangart, please visit the company’s website at www.sangart.com.
CONTACT: Gregory Tiberend of Richard Lewis Communications, Inc.,
+1-212-827-0020, gtiberend@rlcinc.com
Web site: http://www.sangart.com/
