HemaCare Puts Placebo Patients on AIDS Drug

HemaCare Corp., a Sherman Oaks provider of blood-related products and services, said it has suspended placebo treatment in tests of its experimental AIDS therapy, and switched all patients formerly in the control group to drug treatment.

The company said the move was made with the approval of the California Department of Health Services. The decision to switch the placebo patients to drug therapy was based on its six-month analysis of the study’s results that showed the “safety and promising efficacy” of the treatment, the company said.

The HemaCare treatment, called passive hyperimmune therapy, is intended to act like a passive vaccine by giving sick AIDS patients plasma from people who have tested positive for the AIDS virus but remain healthy. HemaCare also said it has applied to the Department of Health Services to expand the study, which originally had 219 patients, to as many as 1,000 patients. If the request is approved, HemaCare said it would begin recruiting new patients as early as September.