The Dutch blood transfusion service tried without success to manufacture blood products for haemophiliacs using a technology abandoned by its Irish counterpart in unexplained circumstances, the tribunal was told.
Prof Willem van Aken, former medical director of the CLB (Central Laboratory of the Netherlands Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service), said it experimented with the technology, developed by a Canadian blood specialist, Dr Gail Rock, but it was never successful in reproducing the "promising" results of published trials.
Prof van Aken said the technology was used by a regional blood bank in Groningen, northern Holland, in the manufacture of intermediate-purity factor concentrates from locally donated plasma.
Claims were made for its effectiveness in Groningen. However, the CLB remained sceptical, he said. In 1988-89, he noted, the technology ceased to be used.
The tribunal has heard the Blood Transfusion Service Board attempted to use the same technology in an effort to become self-sufficient in blood products. A research project was initiated in 1981 but abandoned two years later.
Had it proved successful, the BTSB would have been able to substitute a locally sourced product for commercial concentrates and reduced the risk of HIV transmission.
Prof van Aken told the tribunal the CLB produced its own intermediate-purity concentrates using a different technology. He said it was "relatively easy" to gather the information, but developing the product was harder.
Asked about the feasibility of small or medium-sized countries becoming self-sufficient in blood products, Prof van Aken said it was certainly possible if the intention existed and the organisation [transfusion service] got sufficient funding to collect sufficient material, and there was enough donor motivation.
The tribunal has already heard that the BTSB never succeeded in its stated objective of becoming self-sufficient in blood products.
