Texas Tech, the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (HSC), and Dallas-based HemoBioTech are developing blood substitutes that meets more rigorous safety protocols instituted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Tech has patented a method to ensure that bood substitutes do not contain pathogens that are associated with blood. Intrinsic toxicity of hemoglobin was a major cause of complications in first-generation substitutes. The technology developed at Tech enables the formulation of blood substitutes with different pharmacological characteristics so the product is safe when injected into the bloodstream, says Jan Simoni, DVM, principal investigator of Tech’s blood substitute program. Tech is trying to make a substitute for perfusion fluids, which are used in heart surgeries. Blood substitutes also could be used in times of war or catastrophe, when mass casualties occur. In addition, blood substitutes could be stored for six months before use, in contrast to human blood, which must be used within one month. Blood substitutes also could also be transfused without typing a patient’s blood.<\/p>\n
The next step is to perform preclinical and clinical animal trials, which will require $2 million to $3 million in funding for testing by an independent lab. If the capital is raised quickly enough, testing could begin within the year. HemoBioTech has licensed the technology for the blood substitutes, which address a market estimated at more than $25 billion. “We are very focused on holding [HemoBioTech] accountable to raise the capital and get this to market,” says David L. Miller, Tech’s vice chancellor of technology commercialization and economic development. Success in FDA animal trials would bring additional capital from investors, he adds, by helping to move the technology to the next level.<\/p>\n