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Article: Blood substitutes move through FDA approval process.
- Article from:
- R & D
- Article date:
- July 1, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Advantage Business Media. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Corporate and academic R&D departments have developed several major approaches to providing substitute blood, all of which are undergoing human clinical trials as part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval process.
Three of the methods involve forms of hemoglobin, the iron-containing protein that gives blood its color and naturally transports oxygen through the bloodstream. Another method relies on nonbiological molecules - perfluorochemicals - that mimic the transport action of hemoglobin.
Because of the cost of bringing new medical products to market, almost all the companies working on artificial blood have joint development agreements with ...