Vitex, a Watertown, Massachusetts., company is experiencing renewed interest in its stock. Vitex produces Inactine, a blood purification product. The fresh interest in the company, whose stock had dropped to below $1, came about with the discovery of a cow in Canada with mad cow disease. Inactine is said to bind bacteria, viruses, proteins, white blood cells and other contaminants in bags of separated red blood cells. According to Vitex, after infusing with Inactine, contaminants cannot replicate. As a result, the company hopes to show that red blood cell units can be safely transfused.
The company has begun a series of human trials that could satisfy the regulations of the Food and Drug Administration that blood purified using Inactine provides the same benefits as blood which does not need to be treated. Tests should take about a year.
John R. Barr, chief executive of Vitex, said the product had been developed with European blood supplies in mind, rather than as mechanism for detecting the disease in North America. “We don’t know what mad cow disease does to donor deferrals,” said Barr. “Then there’s a new virus (like SARS).”
