HoG Shipped Millions of Units of Donated Factor This Year

Horizons in Hemophilia, December 2010 

By Leigh Carpenter, RPh, Chief Pharmacist

The Hemophilia of Georgia staff has been very busy in 2010 with our ongoing World Federation of Hemophilia project.  Pfizer donated over 20 million units of Refacto to be donated to other countries throughout the year.    This factor has been shipped primarily to countries in Africa and Latin America, including Ethiopia, Honduras, and Panama.  Other countries receiving factor include Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Vietnam, and Pakistan.  As of the end of November, we had shipped donated factor to WFH Chapters in 56 countries this year. 

Other than the paperwork and FedEx shipping, our staff involvement includes helping unload the factor when it arrives via Custom Critical trucks.  Since our office doesn’t have a loading dock, the wooden pallets the factor is placed on cannot fit through our front doors.  We break down the pallets and move the product into our office on hand trucks and rolling carts.  Then the task of sorting each case of factor by lot number begins.  As our pictures show, this step can be challenging when it is such a large amount!  In December, Bayer donated 9.8 million units of Kogenate FS to the program.  All the effort is rewarding, though, as we know the factor is not going to be wasted! The recipient countries are so appreciative for the life-saving medication their patients would not receive otherwise.

This past July, Hemophilia of Georgia was recognized with the International Outstanding Service Award at the WFH’s XXIX International Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  The award recognizes an individual or organization that has demonstrated “leadership, commitment, and active dedication to serving the bleeding disorders community and furthering the WFH’s mission”.  HoG has been involved as one of the principal storage and dispatching centers for product donations since 2000.  In 2004 alone, we received and shipped out over 50 million units of factor to countries in need.