A retrospective survey on the safety of Replenine, a high-purity factor IX concentrate

To assess the safety of a plasma-derived highly purified factor IX concentrate (Replenine) in routine clinical use.

Following guidelines entitled Safety Assessment of Marketed Medicines (SAMM), safety data were collected in the UK by retrospective review of the hospital notes of 114 patients who received an estimated 14.8 million IU of Replenine. Included were 40 patients undergoing 44 surgical procedures or dental extractions [corrected].

The study detected a total of nine adverse events (AEs), four of which were possibly product-related, four that were unrelated to the product and one whose causality was unknown. None of these cases had been notified to the manufacturer through conventional spontaneous reporting procedures. One patient was switched from Replenine because of infusion site irritation, but no unexpected adverse reactions were noted. There were no reports of virus transmission or new factor IX inhibitor development. The mean factor IX recovery value was 1.44 IU/dl per IU/kg (95%CI: 1.31-1.57 IU/dl per IU/kg).

The study was a practical application of the SAMM guidelines to the collection of pharmacovigilance data on patients with Haemophilia B. Replenine is well tolerated in routine clinical practice.