ProMetic announces positive results of blood-borne infectivity study

By Jennifer Chiou

New York, Oct. 19 - Pathogen Removal and Diagnostic Technologies Inc. announced promising results of a major study, which showed its patented ligand technology removes all detectable blood-borne transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) infectivity from whole blood.

TSEs are fatal brain diseases that include BSE or "mad cow disease" in cattle, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in humans and scrapie in sheep.

According to the results, none of the 100 hamsters injected with leukoreduced scrapie-infected whole blood, previously filtered through devices containing the Pathogen Removal resin, developed signs of the disease.

The 18-month study is expected to be completed in January.

MacoPharma presented the results at the American Association of Blood Banks' annual meeting.

"The results look very promising especially considering that the current reduction of infectivity is the maximum that can be demonstrated," said Luisa Gregori, assistant professor at the University of Maryland at Baltimore and a principal researcher on the study, in a news release.

"This is the first time that removal of the native TSE blood-borne infectivity has been conclusively demonstrated."

Based in Seattle, Pathogen Removal is a joint venture between ProMetic Life Sciences Inc. and the American Red Cross. MacoPharma is a Lille, France, health care company focused on transfusion and infusion.

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