Prolacta Bioscience Continues Advancing the Science of Human Milk, Proud to Partner With NICU Teams in Saving Lives of Premature Infants

DUARTE, Calif., Sept. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Prolacta Bioscience^®, the world's leading hospital provider of 100% human milk-based nutritional products for premature and critically ill infants, is celebrating NICU Awareness Month by recognizing the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) teams that work day and night to care for the most fragile patients. Prolacta acknowledges the integral role NICU care teams have played in supporting Prolacta's mission of delivering life-changing human milk products for critically ill and premature infants.

"Having spent 20+ years as a neonatologist, I can say for certain that everyone working in the NICU commits their time, energy, and whole heart to serving these fragile patients," said Prolacta's Chief Medical Officer Dr. Melinda Elliott. "We at Prolacta are honored to support NICUs worldwide with lifesaving nutrition for these infants so they can go home sooner and healthier."

Since 2006, Prolacta has demonstrated continued leadership in Advancing the Science of Human Milk®, helping NICU care teams meet the nutritional needs of their most vulnerable patients. Prolacta's fortifiers changed the standard of care for extremely premature infants and remain the first clinically tested fortifiers made from 100% donor breast milk. To date, more than 70,000 infants worldwide have benefited from Prolacta's lifesaving nutritional products as part of an Exclusive Human Milk Diet (Prolacta's EHMD).¹

Prolacta was the first company to introduce a nutritional fortifier made from 100% donor breast milk instead of cow milk. Compared to cow milk-based nutritional products, Prolacta's EHMD is clinically shown to reduce health complications and get babies home sooner. Clinical research has shown that Prolacta's EHMD:

• Lowers mortality and morbidity^2-4
• Reduces incidences of health complications, including bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD),^3-6 retinopathy of prematurity (ROP),^3,6 necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC),^3,6,7 and late-onset sepsis^2,3
• Improves feeding tolerance⁶
• Reduces days on parenteral or intravenous nutrition⁸
• Shortens NICU stays⁶
• Reduces hospital costs⁶

"All of us at Prolacta recognize the incredible role that the neonatologists, registered dietitians, nurse practitioners, nurses, lactation specialists, milk lab technicians, milk donors, parents, and the entire NICU care team play in bringing an Exclusive Human Milk Diet (EHMD) to the fragile patients who need it most," said Scott Elster, Prolacta's chief executive officer. "We are grateful for their commitment and tireless work to improve the lives and health of premature and critically ill infants."

As a trusted leader Advancing the Science of Human Milk for more than 15 years, Prolacta has achieved many firsts, including:

• First human milk-based nutritional fortifier, Prolact+ H²MF^®, made from 100% donor breast milk instead of cow milk
• First standardized donor human milk, Prolact HM^®
• First and only human milk caloric fortifier, Prolact CR^®
• First and only human milk-based premature infant formula, Prolact RTF™
• First standardized donor human milk for trophic feeds, PremieLact^®
• First and only pharmaceutical-grade manufacturing facilities for the processing of human milk
• First breast milk DNA fingerprint for 100% donor identification
• First to perform adulteration, nicotine, and drug screening tests for donated human milk
• First to develop, validate, and implement more than 20 tests for the screening of donor human milk to ensure quality and safety
• First to develop nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) to ensure the safety of donated human milk
• First company to conduct randomized clinical trials on the use of an EHMD for premature infants in the NICU and critically ill term infants in the cardiac intensive care unit (CICU)

Prolacta also set the bar for safety and quality in the human milk industry, modeling its manufacturing process after those used in the plasma and blood industries, which surpass food-product safety standards. Prolacta's products are vat pasteurized using profiles defined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), ensuring destruction of pathogenic bacteria while retaining high levels of bioactivity. Bioactivity is thought to be important for supporting the immunity, development, growth, and the long-term health of premature and critically ill infants.⁹

About Prolacta Bioscience
Prolacta Bioscience^® Inc. is a privately held, global life sciences company dedicated to Advancing the Science of Human Milk^® to improve the health of premature and critically ill infants. Prolacta's 100% human milk-based nutritional products have been evaluated in more than 20 clinical studies published in peer-reviewed journals. More than 70,000 premature infants have benefited from Prolacta's nutritional products worldwide to date.¹ Established in 1999, Prolacta is the world's leading provider of human milk-based nutritional products for hospital use and is also exploring the therapeutic potential of human milk across a wide spectrum of diseases. Prolacta maintains the industry's strictest quality and safety standards for screening, testing, and processing human donor milk. Operating the world's first pharmaceutical-grade human milk processing facilities, Prolacta uses vat pasteurization and a patented, FDA-reviewed manufacturing process to ensure pathogen inactivation while protecting the nutritional composition and bioactivity of its human milk-based products. Prolacta is a global company with headquarters in Duarte, California, and can be found online at www.prolacta.com, on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

References

1. Estimated number of premature infants fed Prolacta's products from January 2007 to May 2021; data on file.
2. Abrams SA, Schanler RJ, Lee ML, Rechtman DJ. Greater mortality and morbidity in extremely preterm infants fed a diet containing cow milk protein products. Breastfeed Med. 2014;9(6):281-285. doi:10.1089/bfm.2014.0024
3. Hair AB, Peluso AM, Hawthorne KM, et al. Beyond necrotizing enterocolitis prevention: improving outcomes with an exclusive human milk-based diet [published correction appears in Breastfeed Med. 2017;12(10):663]. Breastfeed Med. 2016;11(2):70-74. doi:10.1089/bfm.2015.0134
4. Huston R, Lee M, Rider E, et al. Early fortification of enteral feedings for infants <1250 grams birth weight receiving a human milk diet including human milk-based fortifier. J Neonatal Perinatal Med. 2020;13(2):215-221. doi:10.3233/NPM-190300
5. Delaney Manthe E, Perks PH, Swanson JR. Team-based implementation of an exclusive human milk diet. Adv Neonatal Care. 2019;19(6):460-467. doi:10.1097/ANC.0000000000000676
6. Assad M, Elliott MJ, Abraham JH. Decreased cost and improved feeding tolerance in VLBW infants fed an exclusive human milk diet. J Perinatol. 2016;36(3):216-220. doi:10.1038/jp.2015.168
7. Sullivan S, Schanler RJ, Kim JH, et al. An exclusively human milk-based diet is associated with a lower rate of necrotizing enterocolitis than a diet of human milk and bovine milk-based products. J Pediatr. 2010;156(4):562-7.e1. doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2009.10.040
8. Cristofalo EA, Schanler RJ, Blanco CL, et al. Randomized trial of exclusive human milk versus preterm formula diets in extremely premature infants. J Pediatr. 2013;163(6):1592-1595.e1. doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2013.07.011
9. Gila-Diaz A, Arribas SM, Algara A, Martín-Cabrejas MA, López de Pablo ÁL, Sáenz de Pipaón M, Ramiro-Cortijo D. A review of bioactive factors in human breastmilk: a focus on prematurity. Nutrients. 2019;11(6):1307. doi:10.3390/nu11061307

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SOURCE Prolacta Bioscience