OPK Biotech Develops Research and Production in Russia
lack of donor blood and the safety of blood medication became one of the most
critical problems in the area of health protection on a global scale. The WHO
(World Health Organization) started the Global Database on Blood Safety,
GDBS. Experts also determined the main problems in the area of blood
transfusion: the necessity of donor blood and other blood products, the
limited access to materials used in hemotransfusion and blood safety.
Nowadays the situation has improved, but mainly in western developed
countries, which can hardly be said about other developing countries.
Earlier there were attempts to struggle against this originated problem,
by means of the creation of chemical blood analogues. This method had a wide
application in
drugs, a scandal arose in the
drugs, as a result of which it was forbidden.
The Russian company OPK Biotech, controlling the American
biopharmaceutical company Biopure Corporation, has worked out two main
products – Hemopure (for human treatment) and Oxyglobin (applied in
veterinary medicine) – offering practical alternatives to these methods.
Already in the beginning of the 1990s, basic production methods for
biological analogue of human blood were worked out. These methods underlay
innovative blood medicines, like Hemopure and Oxyglobin, originated from
cattle blood, and functioning as an oxygen bridge to organisms during
critical situations like anemia, ischemia or severe traumas. At that time
Hemopure and Oxyglobin already existed in medicine, but it took the
authorities permission to deliver the products to the market.
In 1998, the Center for Veterinary Medicine, U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) permitted to apply Oxyglobin in the
the European Committee permitted to apply Oxyglobin in the countries of the
EU. This drug has been sold since 1998.
In
U.S. Maritime Force for permission to test Hemopure in the frameworks of
surgical traumatology by means of the Federal budget. In
during a vote in the Blood Product Advisory Committee (BPAC) all surgeons
supported such a particular testing. The Committee approved pre-clinical
testing of Hemopure. Since then, the NMRC started to stock up on Hemopure.
The contract with the NMRC is still ongoing. In 2009, the FDA got an inquiry
for clinical application of Hemopure in USA.
At the end of
OPK Biotech’s control, a part of the United Industrial Corporation (OPK). OPK
Biotech has high-qualified specialists and managers in the domain of
biochemistry and finance. All top-managers possess academic degrees and
scientific education from leading universities in the
managers also have great experience in the medical domain. In particular, the
Member of the Board of Directors is a former U.S. Surgeon General, named
Today, OPK Biotech disposes of certificated production facilities, with
the capacity to manufacture about 100 thousand doses (250ml) of Hemopure, 347
thousand doses of Oxyglobin (125 ml), or 647 thousand doses of Oxyglobin (60
ml) a year. The company also has all estimated and technical documents
required for the construction of factories, able to produce more than 500
thousand doses of Hemopure a year.
OPK Biotech aims at expanding scientific explorations, increasing the
production base by means of new high-technological productions in different
regions in the world, as well as developing global marketing to promote their
high-technological products.
In particular, OPK Biotech and OPK plans imply the development of
research-and-production complex in
of these technologies with the participation of Russian scientists and
specialists.
About OPK
United Industrial Corporation (OPK) is a diversified holding company with
total value of assets of more than
investment portfolio in major sectors of the Russian economy, including the
financial sector, real estate development, shipbuilding, mining and media.
For more information please visit the OPK website http://eng.opk.ru/
SOURCE OPK