Urgent Need for Plasma Protein Therapies

Urgent and Ongoing need for Plasma Protein Therapies

Did you know that a large number of patients depend on protein therapies derived from human plasma and blood donors in Canada? Donors are required because large volumes of plasma, the liquid portion of blood are required to treat a wide variety of diseases.

For example:

1200 plasma donations are required to treat one patient with hemophilia, a bleeding disorder.
130 donations to treat one patient with primary immunodeficiency, condition where people can not make functional antibodies to fight infections.
900 donations are required to treat one alpha-1 patient, a disorder that affects the lungs.

These therapies replace missing or defective proteins in patients with rare disorders so they can lead healthier and otherwise normal lives. They typically require on-going infusions throughout their lives as they are chronic diseases so plasma is always required.

Bill Bees, Vice- President, Plasma Technology
www.plasma.prometic.com

Examples of diseases and their products are outlined in the table below:

Disease	Product	Description of Condition
Hemophilia A	Factor VIII	Bleeding Disorder caused by a lack of Factor VIII clotting factor. Affects 1 in 10,000 people.
Hemophilia B	Factor IX	Bleeding Disorder caused by a lack of Factor IX clotting factor. Affects 1 in 25,000 people.
Von Willebrand Disease	Von Willebrand Factor VIII	Bleeding disorder due to a defective Factor VIII gene. Affects 1.2 million people worldwide.
Antithrombin Deficiency	Antithrombin III	Bleeding disorder due to a defective ATIII gene.
Primary Immunodeficiency (PID)	Immune Globulin Intravenous or subcutaneous	Genetic disorder where insufficient or defect immune globulin is produced, leading to susceptibility to infections.
Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP)	Immune Globulin Intravenous	Autoimmune disorder that affects the peripheral nervous system of both children and adults. Can lead to muscle weakness and paralysis.
Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP)	Immune Globulin Intravenous	Autoimmune disorder that affects blood platelet levels leading to bleeding disorders.
Kawasaki	Immune Globulin Intravenous	Primarily affects children under 5-years of age leading to heart disease.
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD)	Alpha-1 Protease Inhibitor	Also called genetic emphysema that affects lung function.
Burns, Shock, Trauma, Major Surgery	Albumin	The major plasma protein is used for fluid replacement for a variety of disease conditions.
Infectious diseases like: Rabies Tetanus Varicella Zoster Hepatitis B	Hyperimmune globulin directed against a specific virus or bacteria	Used for treating ore preventing a variety of infectious diseases.
Hereditary angioedema	C1-esterdase inhibitor	A rare and potentially life threating condition characterized by acute attacks of swelling of face, airway, stomach and extremities.