ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 26, 1991                   TAG: 9102260159
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

HUMAN TESTS OK'D FOR COW BLOOD PRODUCT

The Food and Drug Administration has given the green light to a Boston company to begin the first U.S. tests in humans of a purified blood substitute derived from cow's blood, the company said Monday.

The initial tests will be aimed at determining the safety of the blood replacement product made by Biopure Corp., a Boston-based development and pharmaceutical manufacturing company.

The product, called Hemopure, contains the oxygen-carrying part of cow's blood, called hemoglobin.

A similar Biopure product for veterinary use, called Oxyglobin, was approved previously for clinical trials by the FDA. Blood substitutes have the advantage of being purified to the extent that they would not pose a risk of viral contamination, a concern that has intensified during the AIDS epidemic. - Associated Press 


 by CNB