WHO/BS/2016.2282 An international collaborative study to calibrate the WHO 2nd IS for Ancrod (15/106) and the WHO Reference Reagent for Batroxobin

Overview

Ancrod and batroxobin are both thrombin-like proteases that clot fibrinogen but lack the other functions of thrombin so do not activate or cleave other proteins or present a target for inhibitors. As such they have found a number of uses as diagnostic or research tools and potential therapies. NIBSC has been involved in making standard preparations for ancrod and batroxobin since the 1970s. There is a need currently to replace the existing standards available from NIBSC and in the interests of efficiency it was decided this could be best achieved by running a collaborative study to include the current WHO 1st International Standard (IS) for Ancrod 74/581 with a candidate preparation for 2nd WHO IS, and the current 2nd British Standard (BS) for Batroxobin with a candidate preparation for the WHO Reference Reagent (RR).