In August 2003, Sangstat Medical Corporation was acquired by Genzyme Corp. (Nasdaq: GENZ) itself a fairly extensively involved SBIR awardee in the firm's early days. Sangstat Medical Corporation had been a global biotechnology company engaged in research in transplantation to discover, develop and market high value therapeutic products in the transplantation, immunology and hematology/oncology areas. In 2001 the firm had sold its Transplnatation Services to focus on its primary marketed product, Thymoglobulin, a treatment for acute rejection of a kidney transplant, launched in the U.S. in February 1999. The success of that introduction enabled the firm to focus on various therapeutic products and product candidates to address the pre-transplant, acute care and chronic phases of transplantation as well as product candidates in immunology, hematology/oncology and auto-immune disease. The firm's principal products under development included: A smaller-size cyclosporine capsule; ABX-CBL (anti-CD147 antibody in co-development with Abgenix, Inc.); and RDP58.
