On June 29, 2015, representatives of the World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH) and of the Centro Nazionale Sangue (Italian National Blood Centre, CNS) met in London to make the WISH project come true. The WISH project (World Federation of Hemophilia and Italian National Blood Centre for a Sustainable Supply for Haemophilia patients) is a humanitarian program aimed at reducing the gap in the access to clotting factor concentrates between low-income and high-income countries. It is based on the not-for-profit distribution, over a five-year period, of up to 150 million IUs of factor VIII surplus derived from voluntary non-remunerated blood plasma donations, produced under toll-fractionation agreements and exceeding the needs of Italian hemophilia patients.
The partnership between CNS and WFH aims at providing recipient Countries with medium- to long-term product supply; this is ultimately based on specific agreements to be settled between Italian Regions and recipient Countries.
“The Italian Blood System, with its 1.7 million voluntary non-remunerated blood/plasma donors, is strongly committed to pursue self-sufficiency in plasma for fractionation and plasma-derived medicinal products” Dr Grazzini – director of CNS – quotes. “In this framework, we WISH that the partnership with WFH tackles the challenge of promoting the development of ethical, transparent and sustainable projects in order to provide a wider and equitable access to patients in needs of ethical products in recipient low-income Countries”.
Over the last three years, 10 million IU’s of clotting factor have been donated by the Italian Regions to several Countries such as Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, Egypt and India, paving the way to further opportunities offered by the collaboration with the WFH.
“Project WISH demonstrates the commitment and collaboration that is needed globally to make more donated products available in developing countries,” said Alain Weill, WFH President. “This will in turn make humanitarian aid more predictable, and care, sustainable. We fully support the Centro Nazionale Sangue and recognize the importance of their dedication in achieving the WFH’s vision of Treatment for All.”
The WISH initiative was born from both parties’ commitment to ensure an effective response to the therapeutic needs of those patients who would otherwise not have adequate access to treatment, if any. Kedrion Biopharma, as the current partner of the Italian Regions in the toll-fractionation production of plasma-derived medicinal products, has promoted the development and success of this Agreement undertaking the regulatory and logistics costs of the shipping of the products to the recipient Countries, thus providing a valuable contribution to broaden access to clotting factor therapies worldwide.
