R.I.P. Biopure

Boston Globe
End of road for Biopure
Company finishes sale of its assets
By D.C. Denison, Globe Staff August 25, 2009
Biopure Corp., the Cambridge company that was working to develop a human blood substitute, has officially expired.
Last month, the struggling biotech filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and yesterday it said an auction of the company’s assets had been completed. OPK Biotech LLC, a Delaware company, will pay $4 million to get what remains of Biopure. OPK also agreed to purchase for $850,000 some laboratory space and a 50 percent interest in a partnership that owns the Cambridge building housing Biopure’s headquarters. Both deals are expected to close within 30 days.
“This is the end of the road for Biopure,’’ said Zafiris G. Zafirelis, its chief executive.
The firm was once one of the state’s most promising biotechs. Hemopure, the blood substitute made from cow hemoglobin, long seemed on the verge of emerging as a life-saving breakthrough. It had the potential to be used in emergency situations - such as at accident scenes or on battlefields - when supplies of human blood might be limited. But Biopure could never clear regulatory hurdles that would have turned the substitute into a mainstream medical product.
Hemopure showed many benefits compared with real blood: a three-year shelf life, the ability to be used by patients of any blood type, and freedom from diseases and pathogens that could be transmitted by human blood.
The path to Food and Drug Administration approval, however, was rocky. Although the Navy was interested in using the experimental product to treat military personnel wounded in battle, the FDA consistently rejected efforts by Biopure and the Navy to test it in clinical trials, citing safety worries and other concerns.
In a regulatory filing, Biopure said Biopure stockholders won’t receive much money from proceeds of the sale to OPK.
Still, Zafirelis tried to find a hint of optimism in the company’s final chapter. “I’m hoping that OPK Biotech will continue to develop Biopure’s products,’’ he said.
D.C. Denison can be reached at denison@globe.com.