Nice Release:
Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp.'s Oxygent is Expected to Help Alleviate Blood Shortages
SAN DIEGO, Feb. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp.'s (Nasdaq: ALLP - news) Oxygent(TM), an intravascular oxygen carrier (''blood substitute'') in Phase 3 clinical development, is expected to help alleviate anticipated national blood shortages by reducing the need for blood transfusions in surgical patients, Alliance Chairman and CEO Duane J. Roth announced at the BIO CEO & Investor Conference today. Roth noted that the National Blood Data Resource Center has predicted an annual deficit of approximately 250,000 units of blood available for transfusion starting this year. This shortage may be exacerbated by the FDA's recent recommendation to prohibit donations from individuals who spent a cumulative six months in the United Kingdom between 1980 and 1996, and are potentially at risk of having been exposed to infected beef that may be linked to new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD).
''Oxygent is the only blood substitute in clinical development that is formulated from a synthetic raw material (emulsified perflubron), and not derived from human or animal blood,'' Roth said. Its components are available at pharmaceutical-grade purity and industrial quantities. The product is manufactured and sterilized using an economical method in Alliance's commercial-scale facility, which has the capacity to generate enough Oxygent to treat several hundred thousand patients annually. Oxygent is used according to Alliance's proprietary Augmented Acute Normovolemic Hemodilution (Augmented-ANH(TM)) method, which is designed to enhance conservation of the patient's own blood, thereby minimizing surgical blood loss. ''We expect that Augmented-ANH with Oxygent will be the most cost-effective proposed alternative to donor blood for surgical patients,'' Roth stated.
Oxygent has been administered to patients in clinical trials involving more than 850 subjects. Two Phase 3 studies with cardiac and general surgery patients are ongoing in the U.S. and eight European countries. Approximately 8-10 million patients worldwide undergo general surgery procedures each year wherein one to four units of donor blood are anticipated to be transfused.
Except for historical information, the matters set forth in this release are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth herein, including the uncertainties associated with the conduct of preclinical or clinical studies and the timing or ability to investigate scientific data. Alliance refers you to cautionary information contained in documents the Company files with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including the last Form 10-K and Form 10-Q, and those risk factors set forth in the most recent registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-76343).
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