How we choose factor VIII to treat hemophilia

Blood. 2012 May 3;119(18):4108-14. doi: 10.1182/blood-2012-01-394411. Epub 2012 Mar 12.

Abstract

In high-income countries, the large availability of coagulation factors for replacement therapy of patients with hemophilia A has raised the life expectancy of these lifelong bleeders to that of males from the general population. The practicing clinician is offered a multitude of choices among several commercial brands of factor VIII extracted from human plasma or engineered from mammalian cell cultures by means of recombinant DNA technology. This article has the goal to offer our opinions on how to choose among the different products, that we consider interchangeable relevant to their clinical efficacy in the control of bleeding and safety from pathogen transmission. Hence, the main determinants of our choices are price and the risk of occurrence of factor VIII inhibitory alloantibodies. With this as background, we present the rationale underlying the choices for different categories of patients with severe hemophilia A: previously untreated patients, multiply treated patients, and patients undergoing immune tolerance induction with large doses of factor VIII to eradicate inhibitors. Mention is also made to the possible strategies that should be implemented to make available coagulation factors for replacement therapy in developing countries.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Blood-Borne Pathogens
  • Cell Line
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Developed Countries
  • Developing Countries
  • Drug Contamination
  • Drug Costs
  • Factor VIII / adverse effects
  • Factor VIII / economics
  • Factor VIII / genetics
  • Factor VIII / immunology
  • Factor VIII / isolation & purification
  • Factor VIII / therapeutic use*
  • Hemophilia A / drug therapy*
  • Hemophilia A / economics
  • Humans
  • Immune Tolerance
  • Infant
  • Insurance, Health, Reimbursement
  • Isoantibodies / biosynthesis
  • Italy
  • Male
  • Patient Selection
  • Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
  • Recombinant Proteins / adverse effects
  • Recombinant Proteins / economics
  • Recombinant Proteins / immunology
  • Recombinant Proteins / isolation & purification
  • Recombinant Proteins / therapeutic use
  • Species Specificity

Substances

  • Isoantibodies
  • Recombinant Proteins
  • F8 protein, human
  • Factor VIII