At its May meeting, the Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) has completed its review of factor VIII medicines to evaluate the risk of developing inhibitors in patients with haemophilia A who have not previously been treated with these medicines.
Factor VIII is needed for blood to clot normally and is lacking in patients with haemophilia A. Factor VIII products replace the missing factor VIII and help control bleeding. However the body may develop inhibitors as a reaction to these medicines, particularly in patients starting treatment for the first time. This can block the effect of these medicines, so bleeding is no longer controlled.
The review was started following publication of a study which concluded that inhibitors develop more frequently in patients receiving recombinant factor VIII medicines than in those receiving plasma-derived factor VIII medicines. The PRAC concluded that there is no clear and consistent evidence of a difference in inhibitor development between the two classes of factor VIII medicines.
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