Dubai Thalassemia Center lauded at 5th Middle East Thalassemia Investigators & Thought Leaders Meeting

Hosted in the emirate by Dr. Khawla Belhoul of the Dubai Thalassemia Center, Drs. Ali Taher and Maria Capellini are in Dubai to lecture before a large and impressive gathering of regional physicians and healthcare professionals.

They will spotlight the necessity, but also the availability, of a new breakthrough oral treatment for the removal of excess iron in thalassemia patients.

"The Dubai Thalassemia Center is of a world-class standard, both in terms of the professionals staffing the facility and in its advanced approach to therapy," said Dr. Ali Taher who practices medicine in Lebanon and is Professor of Hematology & Oncology at the American University of Beirut Medical Center.

"In particular, we were impressed to learn that the Dubai Thalassemia Center, under Dr. Belhoul's direction, is the first center in the Middle East to dispense the Exjade iron chelation drug, as this is the primary treatment option about which we will be lecturing to regional physicians this week."

Exjade(deferasirox), which can be taken in a drink, removes excess iron from key organs including the liver replacing the use of the cumbersome infusion pump which is needed by patients for up to 12 hours a day, five to seven days a week.

Iron chelation is often necessary to prevent potentially life-threatening complications of excess iron being stored in patients who receive regular blood transfusions for diseases such as thalassemia, myelodysoplastic syndromes, sickle cell disease and other anemias.

Blood disorders are quite prevalent across UAE and the Middle East, and patients needing regular blood transfusions used to undergo lengthy and painful iron chelation treatment.

A single dose of Exjade (deferasirox)works throughout the day, removing excess iron including highly toxic labile plasma iron, from key organs such as the liver.

The body has no inherent mechanism to remove excess iron, so iron chelation is used as an effective treatment for transfusion related iron overload. In iron chelation, an agent binds to iron in the body and tissues and helps remove it through the urine and/or faeces.

Exjade(deferasirox), is currently the only oral iron chelator approved by the FDA, and has been approved in most of the Midlle East countreis including Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, and Qatar, KSA ,Lebanon and Jordan.