A Way to Make Donated Blood Safer; Watertown Firm Develops Product to Stop Pathogens

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

A Way to Make Donated Blood Safer; Watertown Firm Develops Product to Stop Pathogens

Boston Globe (www.boston.com/globe) (12/06/00) P. D4
Rosenberg, Ronald

Watertown, Massachusetts-based V.I. Technologies reportedly has designed a chemistry-based product that can inactivate viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens in red blood cells without affecting blood components. "Despite reductions in the risk of pathogen transmission by blood transfusion, there remains a residual risk of disease transmission from known and as-yet undiscovered pathogens," noted Dr. James P. AuBuchon, acting chairman of the Department of Pathology at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire. AuBuchon, who reported V.I. Technologies' latest findings at the annual conference of the American Society of Hematology in San Francisco, said that the inactivation product, called Inactine, did not negatively affect the oxygen carrying capabilities of the red blood cells. V.I. Technologies will soon launch a phase II study of Inactine-treated red blood cells stored for 42 days, versus 28 in the last test, and administered by pints to 24 individuals.
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