HemaCare Has Begun AIDS Therapy Trials

HemaCare Corp., a Sherman Oaks company that provides blood and blood-related services, said it has begun a previously announced project to clinically test an AIDS treatment called passive hyperimmune therapy.

People who are infected with the HIV virus that causes AIDS, and who don’t show any symptoms, will provide plasma for the test. The plasma will be sterilized and administered to sick AIDS patients. The hope is that the plasma, which contains antibodies that attack the HIV virus, will help the AIDS patients stave off illness. The trial will include 225 patients with AIDS and ARC, a less serious illness caused by HIV that sometimes occurs before the onslaught of full-blown AIDS.

Since June, HemaCare has been collecting the plasma while it waited for final permission from the state to begin the clinical trials.