Prolong Pharma's Abuchowski draws first blood

//March 3, 2009//

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Prolong Pharmaceuticals this month put its work in developing hemoglobin-based treatments into a new, higher orbit by tapping $2 million in grants.SOUTH BRUNSWICK Â Visitors to biotech serial entrepreneur Abe Abuchowski‘s offices at Prolong Pharmaceuticals, in the townshipÂs Monmouth Junction section, cannot miss the glass-door refrigerator in the reception area. It is stuffed not with soda cans or other beverages, but with polyethylene bags that contain pouches of cow blood Â specifically, hemoglobin Â as you learn.

Those pouches contain the promise of using hemoglobin products to treat victims of trauma or hypovolemic shock, caused by severe blood loss, said Abuchowski, ProlongÂs co-founder, president and chief operating officer. They could carry oxygen molecules to affected tissues before they get damaged, potentially preventing long-term disabilities.

Prolong Pharmaceuticals this month put its work in developing those hemoglobin-based treatments into a new, higher orbit by tapping two grants, totaling $2 million, from the National Institutes of Health.

One grant, worth $850,000 will fund production of animal hemoglobin refined with its so-called ÂPegylatedÂ technology, which would be sold to researchers, Abuchowski said. The second grant, for $1.2 million, is to test the product on animals that could then show the path to human treatments.

Abuchowski had developed the technology with Rutgers University biochemistry professor Frank Davis; it helped launch his first venture, Enzon Pharmaceuticals of Bridgewater, which he left in 1992. This technology involves extracting the contents of blood to remove red blood cells, viruses and contaminated proteins, to isolate hemoglobin for further processing.

ProlongÂs current hemoglobin manufacturing operation is near Gainesville, Fla., and consists of four cows on a farm, Abuchowski said. His said his plan is to scale that up to 5,000 cows that will be bled every three weeks, procuring 10 liters in each drawing.

The market potential for products Prolong may commercially launch in a few years is unclear, but Abuchowski offered a trailer: Later this year, Prolong will start marketing its hemoglobin pouches to researchers for between $3,000 and $5,000 each, he said.

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