Humavant® 100% Human Milk-Based Fortifiers Helping Premature Infants in Australia Grow and Develop

Human Milk-Based Nutrition Is Clinically Demonstrated to Improve Health Outcomes in Very Low Birth Weight Babies Compared to Cow Milk-Based Products

ADELAIDE, Australia, Oct. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Prolacta Bioscience^®, the world’s leading hospital provider of 100% human milk-based nutritional products, announced today that a growing number of neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) across New South Wales, Queensland, and South Australia now have access to Humavant^® nutritional products as an alternative to cow milk-based nutritional fortifiers for babies born prematurely. 

Humavant is the first and only human milk-based fortifier available to hospitals in certain regions of Australia, with more than 50 Australian premature infants now joining the 100,000+ infants worldwide¹ who have been fed nutrition free from cow milk and made from 100% donor breast milk.

Human milk nutrition is vital for the health and development of babies born prematurely. Given the estimated 20%–40% increase in caloric needs compared to full-term infants,² a nutritional fortifier is often added to mum’s milk or donor breast milk to provide the nutritional support that is vital to premature infants’ survival, growth, and development. Additionally, in a recent study the use of a human milk diet with human milk-based fortifiers reduced mortality by 50% compared to a diet with cow milk-based fortifiers.³

“Our human milk-based nutritional products are critically important for extremely premature infants born weighing 1250 grams or less, and they decrease the risk of health complications in this vulnerable infant population,” said Scott Elster, CEO of Prolacta. 

Compared to cow milk-based products, an Exclusive Human Milk Diet (EHMD) with Prolacta’s 100% human milk-based nutritional fortifiers has been clinically demonstrated in numerous U.S. studies to improve long-term health outcomes,^4,5 shorten stays in the NICU,⁶ and reduce hospital costs.^6,7

Worldwide, approximately 152 million babies have been born preterm in the last decade, with nearly 1 million dying each year.⁸ In Australia alone, more than 26,000 babies are born prematurely each year, with nearly 3,000 of those born before 32 weeks gestation.⁹

Additional information about Humavant can be found at prolacta.com/apac/en.

About Prolacta Bioscience
Prolacta Bioscience^® is a global life sciences company dedicated to Advancing the Science of Human Milk^® to improve health outcomes for critically ill and premature infants. More than 100,000 extremely premature infants¹ worldwide have benefited from Prolacta’s human milk-based products, which have been evaluated in more than 30 peer-reviewed clinical studies. Operating the world’s first pharmaceutical-grade human milk processing facilities, Prolacta maintains the industry’s strictest quality and safety standards, with over 20 validated tests for screening and testing human milk. Prolacta’s manufacturing process uses vat pasteurization to ensure pathogen inactivation while protecting nutritional composition and bioactivity. Learn more at www.prolacta.com, on X, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Media Contact:
Loren Kosmont
Lkosmont@prolacta.com
310-721-9444

References

1. Data on file; estimated number of premature infants fed Prolacta’s products from January 2007 to August 2023.
2. Hair AB, Bergner EM, Lee ML, et al. Premature infants 750-1,250 g birth weight supplemented with a novel human milk-derived cream are discharged sooner. Breastfeed Med. 2016;11(3):133-137. doi:10.1089/bfm.2015.0166
3. Galis R, Trif P, Mudura D, Mazela J, Daly MC, Kramer BW, Diggikar S. Association of fortification with human milk versus bovine milk-based fortifiers on short-term outcomes in preterm infants—a meta-analysis. Nutrients. 2024;16:910. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/nu16060910
4. Hair AB, Patel AL, Kiechl-Kohlendorfer U, et al. Neurodevelopmental outcomes of extremely preterm infants fed an exclusive human milk-based diet versus a mixed human milk + bovine milk-based diet: a multi-center study. J Perinatol. 2022;42(11):1485-1488. doi: 10.1038/s41372-022-01513-3
5. Bergner EM, Shypailo R, Visuthranukul C, et al. Growth, body composition, and neurodevelopmental outcomes at 2 years among preterm infants fed an exclusive human milk diet in the neonatal intensive care unit: a pilot study. Breastfeed Med. 2020. 15(5):304-311. doi:10.1089/bfm.2019.0210
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. Ganapathy V, Hay JW, Kim JH. Costs of necrotizing enterocolitis and cost-effectiveness of exclusively human milk-based products in feeding extremely premature infants. Breastfeed Med. 2012;7(1):29-37. doi:10.1089/bfm.2011.0002
8. Born too soon: decade of action on preterm birth. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2023. License: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-sa/3.0/igo/)
9. Chow SSW, Creighton P, Holberton JR, Chambers GM, Lui K. 2024. Report of the Australian and New Zealand Neonatal Network 2022. Sydney: ANZNN.

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SOURCE Prolacta Bioscience