Minipool technology to prepare immunoglobulins to fight viral infections in developing countries

A study, publishing February 26th, 2015 in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, describes a new, pragmatic, method for the production of immunoglobulin G (IgG) from human plasma in developing countries. IgG are therapeutic preparations on the WHO Medicine Essential List that are used to treat patients with primary immune immunodeficiency (PID) and to fight various infectious diseases. PID affects approximately 1 out of 5000 individuals. IgG are manufactured mostly in sophisticated facilities located in advanced economies and are produced from plasma collected in the USA or Europe. There are serious shortages of IgG worldwide, leaving PID patients in the developing world without treatment and therefore exposed to local viral and bacterial pathogens. This simple methodology, reported in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, allows the preparation of virally-inactivated IgG from small pool of plasma using disposable equipment and medical devices. It can be implemented to fractionate plasma from developing countries without the need to build a...