Pall Blood Filters to be Used by Texas Blood Center; America's Blood Centers' -ABC- Member, Coffee Memorial Blood Center, Commits to Filtered Blood.

EAST HILLS, N.Y.--(BW HealthWire)--Aug. 4, 1999--

Pall Corporation, (NYSE: PLL), announced today that Coffee Memorial Blood Center in Amarillo, Texas, has selected Pall filters to reduce leukocytes (white blood cells) in all blood products for the 22 hospitals that it supplies. Coffee Memorial Blood Center is a member of America's Blood Centers (ABC). ABC is a network of non-profit, independent community blood centers that supplies almost half of the U.S. blood supply.

According to Pall Corporation, the conversion to leukocyte reduction by filtration was based on Coffee's commitment to ensure the safest and most dependable blood for the patients, physicians and hospitals they serve. Pall Corporation's revolutionary filter technology, being used by the blood center, significantly reduces white blood cells in donor blood. For patients and health care systems, this means fewer medical complications, faster recoveries and lower health care costs.

Their decision to switch to leukocyte reduction is consistent with the recommendation last fall by the Blood Products Advisory Committee (BPAC) of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to leukoreduce all blood products. The committee concluded that "the benefit to risk ratio associated with leukoreduction is sufficiently great to justify routine leukoreduction of all non-leukocyte transfusion blood components." BPAC is an advisory committee to the FDA, which means it makes recommendations to, but does not set policies for, the agency. As a result of the BPAC recommendation and an increase in requests from area hospitals, on June 1, 1999, Coffee Memorial Blood Center began its transition toward supplying 100 percent leukocyte reduced blood products for all its customers.

"We know filtration is already making the blood supply safer in many European countries and Canada, and we applaud Coffee Memorial Blood Center on their leadership role to adopt universal leukocyte reduction in the United States," said Eric Krasnoff, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pall Corporation.

Dr. Mary Townsend, Medical Director and Vice-President at Coffee Memorial Blood Center said, "White blood cells (leukocytes) in a blood transfusion generally serve no purpose and can carry viruses, suppress patients' immune systems and release toxic substances. Studies have shown that leukocyte-reduced blood reduces disease transmissions, virtually eliminates febrile transfusion reactions and protects surgical patients from postoperative infections."

Benefits of Leukocyte Reduction

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Clinical studies(1,2,3) have demonstrated that filtering leukocytes from blood using Pall filters results in a decrease of both infection rates and length of hospital stay and cost of care for surgical patients. Leukocytes have also been identified as a potent mediator of serious clinical transfusion complications, including pathogen transmission, immune suppression, and platelet refractoriness.

Many viruses(4), including cytomegalovirus (CMV), Human T-cell Lymphotrophic Virus (HTLV-1) and Epstein-Barr and other Herpes viruses in addition to bacteria (including Yersinia), are associated with white blood cells or leukocytes. Current test screening for blood donors includes many of these viruses, but no screening tests are available for Epstein-Barr, Herpes and bacteria. Filtration is an important line of defense against these agents and, perhaps, other emerging or yet-to-be discovered viruses or bacteria.

Each year approximately 2.5 million Americans receive blood transfusions while undergoing surgery. These surgical patients use over one-half of all blood transfused in the United States. The amount of blood required for specific surgeries can vary from as little as two to 20 units for hip replacement to as much as 40 units for open heart surgical procedures or 100 units for organ transplants. Studies have shown that patients who receive filtered blood experience less transfusion-associated immune suppression effects, fewer post-surgical infections, remain in the hospital for less time and cost less to treat.(5,6)

Cancer patients, including leukemics and bone marrow transplant recipients, require platelet transfusions as a critical part of their treatment but can develop antibodies to these transfusions resulting in rejection of their bone marrow transplants. Leukocytes are responsible for the production of these antibodies and reducing them is a proven means for avoiding this life-threatening complication and maintaining precious blood resources and its associated costs.(7)

Several countries, including Canada, England, France, Portugal, Ireland and Scotland have already made the decision to filter all blood and are moving forward with their implementation programs.

Blood Filtration in the United States

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In the United States, about 12.6 million units of blood are collected and transfused each year. Approximately 60 percent of platelet units and 30 percent of red blood cell units are currently filtered to reduce leukocytes.

About Pall

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Pall Corporation is a specialty materials and engineering company with the broadest-based filtration and separation capabilities in the world. Pall develops and manufactures sophisticated filtration systems that are used in critical applications throughout the industry.

In Health Care, the company's largest business segment, Pall offers the broadest array of filtration products that are used in the blood center, hospital blood bank and the patient's bedside. Pall pioneered the development of leukocyte reduction blood filters and leukocyte reduction blood processing systems used by hospitals and blood centers.

Pall Corporation, with annual sales over $1 billion, is based in East Hills, New York, and employs 8,500 people throughout the world. The Company's shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange (PLL) and the London Stock Exchange (0668260).

For more information on leukocyte reduction, please visit the Pall Corporation Web site at: http://www.pall.com/leukoreduce or the educational Web site that Pall sponsors at: http://www.bloodtransfusion.com. For additional information about Coffee Memorial Blood Center, please visit their web site at http://www.thegiftoflife.org.

References:

1 Jensen LS, et al. Cost-effectiveness of blood transfusion and

white cell reduction in elective colorectal surgery. Transfusion

1995; 35:719-722.

2 Jensen LS, et al. Randomised comparison of leucocyte-depleted

versus buffy-coat poor blood transfusion and complications after

colorectal surgery. Lancet 1996;348:841-845.

3 Tartter PI, et al. Randomized trial comparing packed red cell

blood transfusion with and without leukocyte depletion for

gastrointestinal surgery. Am J Surg 1998;176:462-466.

4 Bowden RA, et al. A comparison of filtered leukocyte reduced and

cytomegalovirus (CMV) seronegative blood products for the

prevention of transfusion-associated CMV infection after marrow

transplant. Blood 1995;86:3598-3603

5 Blumberg N, Allogeneic transfusion and infection: economic and

clinical implications. Seminars in Hematology 1997;34:34-40.

6 Blumberg N, Heal JM. Blood transfusion immunomodulation. The

silent epidemic . Arch Pathol Lab Med 1998;122:117-119

7 The Trial to Reduce Alloimmunization to Platelets Study Group.

Leukocyte reduction and ultraviolet B irradiation of platelets to

prevent alloimmunization and refractoriness to platelet

transfusions. N. Engl J Med 1997;337:1861-1868