History

Sangart was founded in 1998 in San Diego, California to develop biopharmaceutical products based on a novel understanding of the mechanisms of oxygen transport. Sangart's research effort was initiated by its founder, Dr. Robert Winslow, and its key scientist, Dr. Kim Vandegriff. This extensive research includes over twenty years of publicly-supported studies conducted prior to Sangart's formation at the Letterman Army Institute of Research and University of California, San Diego into the mechanisms of oxygen transport by cell-free hemoglobin solutions. The discoveries arising from this research have been patented and published in numerous scientific articles and form the basis for Sangart's technologies.

Changing the way oxygen is delivered to tissues

What emerged from Dr. Winslow's and Dr. Vandegriff's research and subsequent studies conducted by Sangart and investigators around the world was a new model for thinking about the mechanism of oxygen transport and delivery. These findings have enabled us to understand precisely where in the circulatory system oxygen should be delivered for maximum effect and provided the basis for our unique pegylation approach and the MP4 molecule.

Enhancing how red blood cells work to optimize oxygen delivery

Our product platform is based on the MP4 molecule, an investigational biopharmaceutical product designed to retain oxygen in larger vessels and enhance the perfusion and oxygenation of ischemic (oxygen-deprived) tissues through targeted oxygen delivery in the capillaries.

Using our novel pegylatation approach, MP4OX is produced at the optimal oxygen affinity, diffusion potential and molecular size to retain oxygen in larger vessels and deliver oxygen in the capillaries, where red blood cells do not naturally reach when the body is suffering from ischemia. 

The MP4OX compound enhances the function of standard of care (including red blood cells). MP4OX does not replace the important role red blood cells play in medicine today. MP4OX is designed to improve the perfusion and oxygenation of ischemic tissues by traveling where red blood cells cannot reach and opening the vasculature for targeted oxygen delivery in the capillaries, working alongside red blood cells or other standard of care. In clinical trials the maximum dosage for MP4OX is far less than the volume required in severe transfusion settings, making it inappropriate to consider MP4OX as a replacement for red blood cells.

MP4OX also does not replace the characteristics naturally unique to blood, including the ability to clot, to provide nutrients or to enable immune function. That is why we have developed a clinical approach to study MP4OX  as an adjunct to red blood cells (or other standard of care).

Delivering therapeutic gases

The MP4 molecule can also be modified to carry other gases to enhance therapeutic benefit for certain patients. MP4CO is designed to deliver therapeutic, non-toxic levels of carbon monoxide (CO), providing an immediate metabolic signal to cells and reducing inflammation. Once the CO is released from the molecule, the MP4 molecule is oxygenated in the lung and then delivers oxygen to the ischemic tissues.