Development and small-scale production of a severely heated factor VIII concentrate

The small-scale production of a severely heated factor VIII concentrate is described. As starting material for the production 48 units of fresh frozen plasma from whole-blood donations or 24 units of plasma from apheresis are used. During a glycine and sodium chloride fractionation, contaminating proteins are removed from a pooled extract of single-donor cryoprecipitates. The resulting factor VIII-rich precipitate is redissolved in freeze-drying buffer and this solution is desalted by diafiltration. After filtration, this solution is dispensed into 10 vials and frozen. The product is freeze dried, and heat treated at 80 degrees C for 72 h. The mean yield of the heat-treated product improved from 160 IU factor VIII per liter plasma at the start of the production to 215 IU per liter plasma after a modification of the purification process. The validation of the virus inactivation during freeze-drying and 80 degrees C heat treatment for 72 h showed a reduction of > or = 7.6 log PFU/ml for Sindbis and a reduction of > or = 6.4 log TCID50/ml for HIV-1. The factor VIII concentrate was clinically tested in 6 patients. It possessed a normal half-life, showed a high recovery and no side effects. A Dutch license was granted in June 1991 and since then this product has been routinely manufactured in three Dutch blood banks.