LONDON ¿ Pharming Group NV, which specializes in the production of human proteins in the milk of transgenic animals, said it is ready to begin Phase I trials of human lactoferrin to neutralize the effects of the anticoagulant heparin in open heart surgery.

The Phase I study will investigate the safety and the ability to neutralize heparin of intravenously administered lactoferrin in healthy volunteers.

Heparin is used to prevent the patient¿s blood from clotting during open heart surgery. Protamine sulphate, currently used to restore the clotting properties of the blood after surgery, often causes allergic reactions and other side effects that sometimes are fatal. The discovery that human lactoferrin also is effective in neutralizing heparin was made at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Pharming has an exclusive worldwide license to exploit the finding.

The company, based in Leiden, the Netherlands, said there are about 700,000 open heart surgery operations in North America and Europe each year. ¿ Nuala Moran