Christine, Hextend is a product of Bio Time Inc (BTIM) and is a kind of artificial blood which probably can be used to preserve human organs for transplant. It has been used successfully with animals including mice, dogs, and baboons. It will probably allow human organs to be preserved for more than 24 hours (usual time is 6 hours after death) before removal from cadavers and will help reduce the critical shortage in organs available for transplant.
It also will probably be able to be used for "cold surgery" which allows complex operations now impossible. Many operations require the patient's blood flow to be stopped but because organs are quickly damaged because of lack of oxygen the operation has to be done very fast. Enter Hextend which can be used to freeze the patient, which slows the metabolic rate and reduces the need for oxygen, providing much more time for bypass surgey, tumor removal, aneurysm repair, etc. An operation involving Hextend would probably use 50 liters or $5000 worth. With 500,000 complex heart, brain, and nerve operations per year in the US only a small number going to the Hextend "cold surgery" method could dramatically lift BTIM stock price. Hextend also, of course, eliminates the risk of spreading AIDS and the need to match blood type.
BTIM is also negotiating with an unnamed major drug company and announcement of a deal could also lift BTIM stock.
All of this is in Investor's Business Daily, page A4, Friday, Feb. 14, 1997.
Also check businesswire.com
And also check out Paracelsian web page paracelsian.com
Larry |
