[Can we do without intravenous polyclonal immunoglobines (IVIg)?]

Fabienne Gary-Crosier1, Urs Nydegger, Jean Villard

  • 1Immunoallergologie, Rue de la Fontenette 21, 1227, Carouge.

We currently assist to a strong progress of utilization of human polyclonal intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg), which brings to a situation of extreme tension on the world market supplies, especially for the Swiss market. While stock's shortages, hardly compensable by the whole available therapeutic arsenal, fortunately did not (yet) occur, the donation of blood and plasma in too small quantity in Switzerland does not help the situation. To try to answer to this situation of deterioration of supplies, it seems indispensable to propose marks on the priority usage of IVIg, which would be advisable to respect to guarantee the patients a long-lasting access to treatments by IVIg. The present article proposes to analyze the causes of the current lack situation, establish a hierarchy of the indications, and explore the alternative solution that are emerging with the monoclonal antibodies to decrease the usage of IVIg.

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