Pall Launches New Products to Increase Supply of Safe Blood
12/18/2007 8:14:00 PM
East Hills, NY (October 22, 2007) - - Pall Corporation (NYSE: PLL) launches the new AcrodoseTM PLus System to ensure patients receive the safest possible platelet transfusion -- no matter what type of system blood centers use to collect donated blood. In addition to increasing safety and availability of blood, Pall's new technologies enable more efficient use of blood components by putting an end to wasting valuable and limited donations without increasing hospital or blood center costs. Along with the Acrodose PLus System, Pall is also introducing a new approach that makes universal blood collection possible. The new technologies are being showcased at the AABB annual meeting for transfusion medicine in Anaheim, California this week.
The Acrodose PLus System enables all blood centers -- no matter what type of collection system they currently employ -- to provide patients with an AcrodoseSM Platelet, a transfusion-ready, therapeutic dose of the highest quality whole-blood derived platelets available today. Pall was granted FDA clearance for marketing the AcrodoseTM PL System two years ago; initially applicable to blood centers in the U.S. that use a Pall collection and filtration system for whole-blood platelet collection. The new Acrodose PLus System provides blood centers with greater operational flexibility, and allows them to use any collection system for whole blood platelet preparation -- ultimately giving more patients the benefits of an Acrodose Platelet. The expanded use of the Acrodose PLus with all collection systems is especially valuable for blood centers that cannot currently change their established blood processing practices due to procedural or contractual obligations, validation and other requirements.
The original Acrodose PL System addressed concerns regarding platelet shortages in many parts of the country due to a growing dependence on apheresis (single-donor) platelets, and platelet safety, especially bacterial contamination, associated with whole-blood derived platelets. (Bacterial contamination of platelets is a leading cause of sickness and death from a blood transfusion.) With the Acrodose PLus System, all blood centers and hospitals will no longer have to be concerned about a lack of sufficient quantities of platelets for life-saving transfusions or employ platelets that are not tested for bacterial contamination using the most sensitive culture detection methods.
''Our goal is to help blood centers and hospitals enhance their ability to provide patients with access to the safest blood possible for transfusion. We do this by developing innovative technologies that they can efficiently put into practice, without adding to their myriad burdens and challenges, such as cost, which all too often can deter advances in blood processing, '' says Allan Ross, President of Pall Medical and former Chief Operating Officer, American Red Cross Biomedical Services. ''With the Acrodose PLus System, a two-tiered level of platelet quality can truly become a practice of the past as all blood centers and hospitals will no longer have to trade off between platelet safety and availability.''
The Acrodose Platelet is a new generation platelet product with significant advantages -- improved safety, increased availability and lower cost. Acrodose Platelets are leukocyte reduced (white blood cells removed), matched for blood type and tested for bacteria using a sensitive culture-based system. Clinically equivalent to a single donor platelet (in terms of platelet count and quality) but at a lower cost, an Acrodose Platelet enables blood centers to tap into the abundant but often discarded resource of whole blood platelets without sacrificing safety.
Acrodose Platelets benefit patients who require life-saving platelets for treatment of cancer, leukemia, blood disorders, bone marrow or organ transplants, accident, burn or trauma as well as blood collection facilities that collect, pool, and test the platelets, and the hospitals that transfuse them. Patients can be assured that they are receiving the highest quality of platelets available. Hospital and blood centers will be able to efficiently and conveniently provide optimal blood products, not waste valuable whole blood donations and achieve this without adding to their costs.
Universal Collection - - A New Approach to Prevent Wasting Valuable Blood
With the availability of the Acrodose PLus System, Pall is also introducing a new approach that makes universal blood collection possible so that blood centers will no longer have to determine in advance what type of blood components to collect. Most often when collections are done, especially by mobile units, blood centers have to take their best guess on which blood components are needed by hospitals for their patients -- red cells, plasma and/or platelets-- and set up their collections to do that. By using the new Acrodose PLus System with the Pall Leukotrap® RC System with RC2D Filter, much of that guesswork is eliminated. Together they allow blood collection facilities to collect whole blood with one universal collection and filtration system and make the determination of which components to process after they return -- closer to real time when the hospital orders their blood components based on actual patient needs.
The Leukotrap RC System with RC2D Filter gives blood centers greater flexibility in helping to meet transfusion needs, conserve blood through enhanced processing and avoid problems of wasting valuable blood resources. The universal aspect of this collection system gives them options on which blood components to process while also maximizing blood component return. After collection, based on actual needs, blood centers can choose to process the donated blood one of two ways. The first way is to manufacture red cells and plasma. In this case, the Leukotrap RC System with RC2D Filter provides for more that ten percent additional plasma than traditional whole-blood collection systems. The alternative option is to process some of the donated blood into non-leukocyte reduced platelets, a conventional amount of plasma as well as red cells. In this case, the non-leukoreduced platelets can then also be processed with the Acrodose PLus to make an Acrodose Platelet.
Demand for blood components can change daily, sometimes hourly, depending upon circumstances or emergencies. Both plasma and platelets are precious blood components and are becoming increasingly more valuable with the institution of new restrictions on the donor pool to reduce potentially fatal diseases such as TRALI (transfusion-related acute lung injury). Additionally, platelets whose main function is to aid in clotting have a very short life span (5 to 7 days prior to being discarded). Plasma is the liquid portion of blood which transports blood cells, water and nutrients to the body's tissues and also contains many proteins that help the blood to clot and fight disease.
About Pall Corporation
Pall Corporation is the global leader in the rapidly growing field of filtration, separation and purification. Pall is organized into two businesses: Life Sciences and Industrial. These businesses provide leading-edge products to meet the demanding needs of customers in biotechnology, pharmaceutical, transfusion medicine, energy, electronics, municipal and industrial water purification, aerospace, transportation and broad industrial markets. Total revenues for fiscal year 2007 were $2.2 billion. The Company's headquarters are in East Hills, New York, with extensive operations throughout the world. For more information, visit Pall at http://www.pall.com
