Vanguard Therapeutics, Inc. is an early stage firm developing an orally absorbable cell adhesion-blocking drug for the prophylactic therapy of sickle cell disease. Founded by long-term UCSF facultoy with important pharmaceutical industry experience, program is based on the knowledge that clinical problems of sickle cell disease are the result of abnormal blood flow and that adhesion of sickle red blood cells to the vascular endothelium is fundamental to the abnormal blood flow. P-selectin on vascular endothelial cells is central to sickle red blood cell adhesion, and the firm's compound effectively blocks P-selectin. Firm is addressing development of reliable assays for parent compound and the identification of a superior fraction of that compound for use as an active pharmaceutical ingredient in commercial development. Firm has associate status with JLabs
