New Delhi, Nov 18 (IANS) A new genetically engineered treatment for
hemophilia, a dreaded disease where blood doesn’t clot, was launched here
Wednesday by a private pharmaceutical company.
Unlike other procedures, this treatment won’t require donor blood for
transfusion.
The treatment based on ‘Recombinate’, a genetically engineered and non-plasma
derived protein factor VIII (the deficiency of which causes the disease) was
launched by pharmaceutical company Baxtar.
This is the first time such a treatment has been launched in the country, where
an estimated 100,000 people are affected, company officials said.
Speaking at the launch, Baxter India’ s business unit director Shubhi Khurana
said: “Hemophilia, a disease when blood does not clot during injuries and causes
severe bleeding has been a major health concern in India. This condition is
caused because of the absence of Factor VIII in blood.”
In India treatment so far has been based on plasma (liquid component of blood)
and its derived protein factors. Thus human blood donation was essential for
treatment of hemophilia like any other transfusion where probability other
transmitted diseases increases.
“The probability of spreading blood borne vectors like HIV, Hepatitis B and C
from the donor to the receiver was high,” said Alok Srivastava, the head of the
hematology department at Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore.
He added that only 10 percent of the affected patients were diagnosed at present
and this number was growing.
“The demand for the protein factors are increasing with each passing day. Thus
the introduction of Recombinate would go a long way,” Srivastava said.
Almost 10 to 14 percent of those with hemophilia are also infected by Hepatitis
B and 24 to 30 percent infected by Hepatitis C, according to the July 2009 issue
of the Indian Journal of Medical Research.
The Recombinate treatment is in use in 41 other countries since it was first
launched in 1992.
Vijay Kaul of the Society for Hemophilia Care, who also suffers from the
condition, says that almost 20 percent of the total hemophiliacs in the world
are Indians.
