Volume 7, Number 1
Hepatitis C compensation approved in Japan
Japanese lawmakers have passed a bill that will enable hundreds of people infected with hepatitis C by tainted blood products to claim compensation. www.reuters.com
Baxter to develop recombinant factor IX product
Baxter has initiated pre-clinical programs to develop recombinant factor IX proteins to treat hemophilia B. www.baxter.com
Novo Nordisk to develop factor X product
Novo Nordisk has entered into and agreement with French biotechnology company C2X Pharma and the French national institute for health and medical research (Inserm) to develop protein thrombin-activable factor X. http://bulletin.sciencebusiness.net
CSL Behring's Helixate FS now available in 2000 IU vial size
The new vial size has been approved in the US. It is intended for patients that need to use large amounts of factor at once. www.cslbehring.com
Requirements for human blood and blood components intended for transfusion or for further manufacturing use – FDA extends comment period
The agency has responded to concerns that 90 days was not enough time to provide meaningful commentary on the proposed requirements. www.fda.gov
Unusual CJD case
An article published in the journal Archives of Neurology reports on a case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease where the patient is genetically different from the previously investigated cases. (The patient was valine-homozygous at codon 129 of the prion protein gene. All clinical cases of vCJD have been methionine homozygotes at codon 129.) This means it is possible that more cases of vCJD could appear, although the rate of new cases in the UK has been in decline. http://archneur.ama-assn.org
Events
2008 International Plasma Protein Congress
4-5 March – Warsaw, Poland
www.ippc2008.com
Hemophilia 2008
1-5 June – Istanbul, Turkey
www.hemophilia2008.org
The IPFA & PEI 15th Workshop on Surveillance and Screening of Blood Borne Pathogens
13-15 May – Vienna, Austria
www.sanquin.nl
Plasma Forum
17-18 June – Washington, USA
www.plasmaproteinforum.com
Safety & Supply News
Published bi-monthly by the World Federation of Hemophilia.
Next issue: April 2008
Editorial Board: Claudia Black, WFH (Canada); Albert Farrugia, PhD (Australia); Paul Giangrande, MD (U.K.); Keith Hoots, MD (U.S.A.); Elizabeth Myles, WFH (Canada); Brian O’Mahony (Ireland); David Page (Canada), Mark Skinner (U.S.A.); Mike Soucie, PhD (U.S.A.); Alok Srivastava, MD (India)
Editor: Mark Brooker, WFH World Federation of Hemophilia
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