RMR: On the huge difference between Biotime's Hextend product and SMTG's Optro (and later-generation hemoglobin molecules), see various messages on this thread, including Reply #172 (hematologist Bharat H. Barai). The gist of it is that Hextend does not carry oxygen, but is merely a plasma extender, playing a volume replacement role. Hextend thus competes in the market with saline and colloid solutions, but does not compete with ALLP's Oxygent, SMTG's Optro, BAX's HemAssist, or NFLD's PolyHeme.
There is a Biotime thread on SI (although my sampling of it suggests it is populated with momentum players who don't seem to know or care much about the product under development), and there is a nice survey of the "oxygen therapeutics" products in development in the February 20, 1997 issue of McCamant's Medical Technology Stock Letter.
It should be noted that the quote from "Tony" in Reply #293 has enough casual inaccuracies to rob it of any credibility:
SMTG's and BTIM's products, as noted, are not at all similar. Among the oxygen-carrying products, SMTG has probably the superior product, but it is not in Phase III, and will surely not be first to market. BAX is in Phase III with its HemAssist, and NFLD is beginning Phase III, and BAX will likely be first. Both BAX and NFLD will be severely limited by their dependence on outdated human blood (500,000 to 1,000,000 units or so annually, on various estimates)as the raw material for their products (restricting their combined production to a few hundred thousand units annually). In contrast, SMTG's recombinant hemoglobin can be produced in essentially unlimited quantities, and shows promise of serving a much wider variety of oxygenation roles -- possibly a breathtakingly important and profitable product.
That's a short summary. I commend to you many of the posts on this thread, especially those of Dr. Barai (for the science, concisely explained) and jackie.
-- Bob Macek |
