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

The MP4 gas-delivery platform is being used to develop ischemic rescue therapies. These are being developed for patients in crisis who are experiencing ischemia (oxygen deprivation of tissues) and organ dysfunction as a result of hemorrhagic injury or a vaso-occulsive crisis associated with sickle cell disease.

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. 

MP4OX is an ischemic rescue therapy that 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 has been developed to perfuse and oxygenate tissues at risk of injury due to ischemia and hypoxia, in patients experiencing hemorrhagic injury. MP4OX travels to where red blood cells cannot reach and opens the vasculature for targeted oxygen delivery in the capillaries, working alongside red blood cells or other standard of care.

MP4OX 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 rational clinical approach to study MP4OX  as an adjunct to red blood cells (or other standard of care) not as a replacement..

Delivering therapeutic gases

The MP4 molecule can be modified to carry other gases to enhance therapeutic benefit for certain patients. Another product in clinical development, MP4CO, is designed to deliver therapeutic, non-toxic levels of carbon monoxide (CO). MP4CO is an ischemic rescue therapy for sickle cell crisis. It has been designed to improve perfusion and limit progression of the vaso-occlusive crisis associated with sickle cell disease, based on its anti-sickling, anti-inflammatory and anti-ischemic properties.