Measures to inactivate viral contaminants of pooled plasma products

In order to produce safer plasma products all possible methods of virus inactivation and reduction must be investigated systematically. Since the number and types of viruses are unknown and could change with time, a general viricidal approach is necessary. While heating has been the standard, a variety of methods are available for reducing the transmission of virus infection by blood products. Satisfactory development of these methods is limited by the cumbersome, expensive and imprecise experimental tools being used, i.e., the chimpanzee or human clinical trials.