Category

• Antihemorrhagic

Description

Factor IX is a protein produced naturally in the body. It helps the blood form clots to stop bleeding. Injections of factor IX are used to treat hemophilia B, which is sometimes called Christmas disease. This is a condition in which the body does not make enough factor IX. If you do not have enough factor IX and you become injured, your blood will not form clots as it should, and you may bleed into and damage your muscles and joints.

Injections of one form of factor IX, called factor IX complex, also are used to treat certain people with hemophilia A. In hemophilia A, sometimes called classical hemophilia, the body does not make enough factor VIII, and, just as in hemophilia B, the blood cannot form clots as it should. Injections of factor IX complex may be used in patients in whom the medicine used to treat hemophilia A is no longer effective. Injections of factor IX complex also may be used for other conditions as determined by your doctor.

The factor IX product that your doctor will give you is obtained naturally from human blood or artificially by a man-made process. Factor IX obtained from human blood has been treated and is not likely to contain harmful viruses such as hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C (non-A, non-B) virus, or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The man-made factor IX product does not contain these viruses.

Factor IX is available only with your doctor's prescription, in the following dosage form:

Parenteral
• Injection (U.S. and Canada)

Brand Names

Some commonly used brand names are:

In the U.S.—

• AlphaNine SD
• Bebulin VH
• BeneFix
• Konyne 80
• Mononine
• Profilnine SD
• Proplex T

In Canada—

• AlphaNine SD
• Bebulin VH
• BeneFix
• Immunine VH

Other commonly used names are Christmas factor , plasma thromboplastin component (PTC) , and prothrombin complex concentrate (PCC) .