BAXTER BLOOD SUBSTITUTE TESTS

Baxter has begun clinical trials of its hemoglobin-based blood substitute on victims of hemorrhagic shock at a hospital in Oklahoma, USA, the first time a blood substitute has been tested on such patients in the country. In February, Baxter began testing its product, called DCLHb, in hemorrhagic shock patients in Europe.

The company said that the initial safety assessment trial would be expanded to include other US centers later this year. The substitute is extracted from out-of-date donated blood collected by the Red Cross and other agencies. The advantages of the product over blood transfusions is that it is virus-free and does not have to be matched or typed to the recipient. The product also has a longer shelf-life than whole blood, and can be retained for over a year compared with just a few weeks.

DCLHb is produced by a patented chemical process in which hemoglobin molecules are cross-linked, thereby rendering them more stable in the blood and altering their oxygen affinity so that it mimics the activity of "red cell-bound" hemoglobin. The chemical stabilization also enables the hemoglobin product to withstand a patented viral inactivation process which is effective against many viruses, including HIV and hepatitis viruses.