Subject: Somatogen Says It Has Developed Blood Substitute 
Date: Published: 3/19/92 (68 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Technology & Medicine:
    Somatogen Says
    It Has Developed
    Blood Substitute
    ----
    By Elyse Tanouye
    Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

    Somatogen Inc. said it and its British collaborators
 designed a synthetic blood substitute that can be produced
 more efficiently than a previous version and might be
 commercialized in a few years.
    Somatogen, a Boulder, Colo., biotechnology concern, is
 racing other companies to find blood substitutes that
 eliminate the threat of infection from blood-borne organisms,
 such as the AIDS virus.  Researchers are developing synthetic
 blood, recycling outdated human blood, and chemically
 treating and purifying hemoglobin from other animals.  The
 world-wide market for blood substitutes has been variously
 estimated at $5 billion to $8 billion a year.
    In a report published in this week's issue of Nature,
 Somatogen and researchers at the Medical Research Council
 Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England,
 described a new, genetically engineered form of hemoglobin
 synthesized in bacteria.
    Hemoglobin is the blood component that carries oxygen to
 tissues.  Naturally occurring hemoglobin must be chemically
 modified to prevent it from breaking down into substances
 that harm the kidneys and to improve its ability to release
 oxygen to tissues, said Gary Stetler, Somatogen vice
 president of research and development.  But the chemical
 process is complex and difficult to control, Mr. Stetler
 said.
    As described in the Nature article, Somatogen's newest
 hemoglobin molecule needs no chemical modification and thus
 requires 12 fewer steps than the company's previous
 hemoglobin technology, which required some chemical
 modification.  The new process allows greater control over the
 product and reduces its cost, Mr. Stetler said.
    Somatogen believes that, unlike other blood substitutes
 being developed by competitors using human or animal blood,
 its newest synthetic blood won't be limited by supply
 sources.  Moreover, the company hopes consumers will have more
 confidence in the synthetic product's purity since it doesn't
 use blood as a raw material.
    Somatogen's hemoglobin is currently undergoing early human
 testing for safety but not for efficacy.  If the testing and
 approval process goes as planned, Somatogen could be ready to
 market the blood substitute in three years, Mr. Stetler said.
    Other companies working on blood substitutes are Baxter
 International Inc., Deerfield, Ill.; Alliance Pharmaceutical
 Corp., San Diego; DNX Corp., Princeton, N. J. ; Biopure Corp.,
 Boston, in which Upjohn Co. of Kalamazoo, Mich., has a major
 investment and a marketing agreement; and a number of closely
 held companies.
    Somatogen has been a hot stock since it went public at $19
 a share in August.  The stock peaked at $50.50 in January but
 has since cooled with the rest of the biotechnology group,
 closing yesterday at $30, up 25 cents, in over-the-counter
 trading.

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