In 21 clinical trials completed prior to filing our orthopedic surgery BLA, 797 patients received Hemopure and 661 control group patients received donated (also referred to as “allogenic”) red blood cells and/or colloidal or crystalloid fluids. Some patients in the Hemopure-treated group also received allogenic red blood cells and/or other fluids as specified in the trial design.
Based on the integrated safety database in our orthopedic surgery BLA, which combines data from 21 clinical trials, 93% of the patients in the Hemopure group and 88% of the control group patients experienced at least one adverse event (AE), and 23% of the Hemopure patients and 18% of the control group patients experienced at least one serious adverse event (SAE). As expected, the incidence of AEs and serious AE’s (SAEs) increased in both groups as patients’ transfusion needs increased. Many of these events are commonly experienced by surgery patients.
AEs that occurred in the Hemopure group at greater than or equal to 5% increased incidence compared with the control group included transient yellow skin discoloration (not associated with liver dysfunction), nausea, mild to moderate increase in blood pressure (10 to 20 mm/Hg), vomiting, low urine output, difficulty swallowing, flatulence, and low red blood cell count. These AEs were generally transient and manageable.
SAEs that occurred statistically significantly more often (p is less than or equal to 0.1) in the Hemopure group were postoperative bleeding (0.9% vs. 0%, p=0.018) and stroke (1.0% vs. 0.2%, p=0.046), none of which were reported by the treating investigator as associated with Hemopure. The increased incidence of reported postoperative bleeding in the Hemopure group may be attributable to wound seepage of plasma that has a pinkish discoloration due to the presence of Hemopure. When stroke is combined with other clinically relevant syndromes (transient ischemic attack and other reversible ischemic neurological events) the incidence is comparable (not statistically significantly different) between the two groups (1% vs. 0.5%, p=0.363). The incidence of heart attack (1.1% Hemopure vs. 0.5% control, p=0.244), acute renal failure (0.6% vs. 0.5%, p=0.735) and death (3.1% vs. 2.1%, p=0.257) was also comparable between patient groups. The SAE of intestinal infection occurred statistically significantly more often in the control group (0% Hemopure vs. 0.5% control, p=0.093). The p-value is a measure of statistical significance, indicating the probability of the observations happening by chance. The difference in the incidence of SAEs between the treatment groups is deemed statistically significant when “p” is less than or equal to 0.1.
OPK Biotech 