Baxter Healthcare Corporation, the leading blood collection, processing and storage systems company, has launched ALYX Component Collection System.

The ALYX System produces two units of leuco-reduced red cells from a single donor without extracting double the amount of blood. It collects whole blood, separates the red cells from the whole blood and returns all other blood components to the donor.

Due to an increase in surgeries, growing population of older patients and fewer donors, demand for red blood cells (RBC) exceeds supply and many blood centres have reported shortages. With this new System, the value of every donation is multiplied as the donors can contribute more per visit with minimal strain, sources from the company said.

Since ALYX only extracts red cells and returns all other components to the donor, blood centres can increase their red cell supplies without enlarging the donor pool. This will also be a boon to thalassaemia patients, said Sanjiv Verma, managing director Baxter India.

Baxter has also introduced Intercept Blood System, which reduces the risk of disease transmitted by transfusion. Intercept offers the potential to inactivate known as well as unknown pathogens thus reducing the risk of transfusion - transmitted disease.

Baxter India, a subsidiary of Baxter International Inc. was set up here in 1997.