Plasma Products

There are a number of examples of severe virus contamination of protein pharmaceuticals derived from animal and human sources - plasma as well as tissue.

In the 1950's an SV40 contamination is documented for polio virus and adeno virus vaccines due to infected rhesus monkey kidney cells that had been used as primary cell cultures for production.In 1994 ( M. Carbone, Chicago ) SV40 was detected in rare forms of cancer. That observation was confirmed worldwide and led to speculation on an increased risk of cancer for those millions of people who were vaccinated that time ( J. Butel, Journal of the National Cancer Institute ). The manufacture of polio vaccine was changed in 1961, six years after its introduction to the market.

Yellow fever vaccine was contaminated with two viruses of different origin: avian leukosis virus derived from infected hen eggs used for production and hepatitis B virus derived from human sera added as a stabilizer of the vaccine product.

A particularly distressing example is HIV infection caused by contaminated human blood products.

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In human tissues, the transmission of slow virus disease was shown to be correlated with the source of the natural human growth hormone ( HGH ) - pituitary glands of humans. This problem was solved by introducing the recombinant human growth hormone derived from biotechnology manufacturing.