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Sangart Publishes Results of Resuscitation Study

SAN DIEGO, CA (July 23, 2003) – Sangart, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing oxygen transport agents, announced today the results of its study showing that polyethylene glycol-modified human hemoglobin (MalPEG-Hb) improves blood flow and tissue oxygenation after hemorrhagic shock. The manuscript entitled "Resuscitation with polyethylene glycol-modified human hemoglobin improves microcirculatory blood flow and tissue oxygenation after hemorrhagic shock in awake hamsters" was published in the June issue of Critical Care Medicine. This article was subsequently followed by an editorial entitled "Counterintuitive red blood cell substitute - polyethylene glycol-modified human hemoglobin."

Robert M. Winslow, M.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sangart, commented, "We are pleased to report the results of this study. There are many complications surrounding hemorrhagic shock - such as sepsis or multiple organ failure. We are encouraged to find that a low-dose oxygen carrier with high viscosity and colloid osmotic pressure might be superior to autologous blood in returning an organism to normal conditions after hemorrhagic shock."

The study was conducted on hamsters, which were hemorrhaged into shock and then assigned to separate resuscitation groups: shed blood, a non-oxygen-carrying plasma expander (hydroxyethyl starch, HES), and MalPEG-Hb. The results from this study indicated that resuscitation with MalPEG-Hb restores functional capillary density better than the shed blood or HES. Another conclusion is that MalPEG-Hb improves tissue oxygenation with a low amount of additional hemoglobin compared with resuscitation with shed blood.

Dr. Winslow, continued,"We feel that this article provides important validation of our technology and is an important step in the development of our key product candidate, Hemospan®."

About Sangart

Sangart is a private biopharmaceutical company focused on the research, development and commercialization of medical products designed for use as alternatives to blood transfusions. The products are chemically modified hemoglobin solutions prepared from outdated human blood, designed specifically to transport oxygen in a cell-free solution.

Dr. Robert Winslow, a world-renowned authority in the field of oxygen transport, founded Sangart in 1998. In the two decades prior to founding Sangart, Dr. Winslow and his colleagues studied and defined mechanisms of oxygen transport by cell-free hemoglobin solutions, funded by competitive grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense. The counterintuitive discoveries by Dr. Winslow's group on the effective action of oxygen transport agents have been patented and published in numerous scientific articles. From this experience, Sangart designed its lead product, Hemospan®®, using unique polyethylene glycol conjugation to create a hemoglobin-based product that is intended to serve as an alternative to donated blood.

The key breakthroughs in the development of Hemospan® were the understanding of the mechanisms of vasoconstriction and the development of simplified production methods that make the final product commercially viable. These breakthroughs laid the groundwork for Sangart's business concept of developing cost-effective oxygen carriers that can be used in lieu of transfused red blood cells during episodes of temporary blood loss, such as surgery or trauma.

To learn more about Sangart or Hemospan®, please visit www.sangart.com