The taintedblood Timeline  -  what really happened...

In 1972, commercial factor VIII is imported from the USA into the United Kingdom for the first time.

The paper, entitled "Haemophilia Treatment in the United Kingdom from 1969 to 1974" by Rosemary Biggs, goes on to state that:

"It has been shown that such commercial blood has been 10 times more likely to transmit hepatitis than blood collected from unpaid donors by National Transfusions services." (Maycock 1972).

Commercial Factor VIII (introduced in 1972) has now grown to account for 13 per cent (13%) of the available clotting factors for persons with Haemophilia A.

Commercial Factor IX is currently available for purchase in the United Kingdom, but there is enough NHS Factor IX, and only small amounts of commercial Factor IX are required.

Haemophilia Centre Directors meeting (with DHSS representative) endorses the Biggs MRC Working Party report recommending UK self-sufficiency on the grounds of cost. A need is recognised for a minimum of 38m to 53m iu products (550,000 to 750,000 donations) per annum, including 500,000 donations solely for concentrate.

In a letter of June 1977 from the DHSS, entitled "The Distribution of Factor VIII", it states that:

"Biggs in her recent paper (B.Journ.Haemat. 1977,35,487) estimates the clinical demand for factor VIII at 50 million I.U. per annum in the UK of which at least half, and preferably all should be in the form of the concentrate." (Page 1, point 3.)