New developments in plasma fractionation and virus inactivation

Ethanol fractionation has been used for fifty years to prepare therapeutic proteins from human plasma. Although the method has been very successful, there are now newer techniques available, which might at least in part replace ethanol fractionation. Whether or not this will occur depends on the economic benefits the new methods offer. Although transmission of viruses through blood products is nowadays fortunately a rare event, the search for alternative inactivation and/or removal methods for viruses continues. The small, non-enveloped viruses are particularly difficult to deal with, and any new method should address this problem with a high priority. Transmission of spongiform encephalopathies (Creutzfeld-Jakob and similar diseases) by blood and blood products has not been observed so far. Preliminary experimental evidence indicates that the putative causative agent(s) are removed from the final products during fractionation.