Read all of this leaflet carefully before you start using this medicine because it contains important information for you.

• Keep this leaflet. You may need to read it again.
• If you have further questions, ask your doctor, your nurse or your pharmacist.
• This medicine has been prescribed for you. Do not pass it on to others. It may harm them, even if their signs of illness are the same as yours.
• If you get any side effects talk to your doctor, nurse or pharmacist. This includes any possible side effects not listed in this leaflet. See section 4.

What is in this leaflet:

1. What Voncento is and what it is used for
2. What you need to know before you use Voncento
3. How to use Voncento
4. Possible side effects
5. How to store Voncento
6. Contents of the pack and other information

What is Voncento and what is it used for?

The product is made from human plasma (the liquid part of the blood) and contains the active substances called human coagulation factor VIII (FVIII) and human von Willebrand factor (VWF).

Voncento is used to prevent or to halt bleeding caused by the lack of VWF in von Willebrand disease (VWD) and the lack of FVIII in haemophilia A. Voncento is only used when treatment with another medicine, desmopressin, is not effective alone or cannot be given.

VWF and FVIII are involved in blood clotting. Lack of either factor means that blood does not clot as quickly as it should so there is an increased tendency to bleed. The replacement of VWF and FVIII by Voncento will temporarily repair the blood clotting mechanisms.

As Voncento contains both FVIII and VWF, it is important to know which factor you most need. If you have Haemophilia A your doctor will prescribe you Voncento with the number of units of FVIII specified. If you have VWD your doctor will prescribe you Voncento with the number of units of VWF specified.

Do not use Voncento

• If you are allergic to VWF or FVIII or any of the other ingredients of this medicine (listed in section 6).

Warnings and precautions

Talk to your doctor, nurse or pharmacist before taking Voncento.

• Allergic (hypersensitivity) reactions are possible. If symptoms of hypersensitivity occur, you should stop using the medicine immediately and contact your doctor. Your doctor should inform you of the early signs of hypersensitivity reactions. These include hives, generalised skin rash, tightness of the chest, wheezing, fall in blood pressure and anaphylaxis (a serious allergic reaction that causes severe difficulty in breathing, or dizziness).
• The formation of inhibitors (antibodies) is a known complication that can occur during treatment which stops the treatment working properly. If your bleeding is not being controlled with Voncento, tell your doctor immediately. You should be monitored carefully for the development of inhibitors.
• If for the administration of Voncento you will require a central venous access device (CVAD), the risk of CVAD-related complications including local infections, bacteria in the blood (bacteremia) and the formation of a blood clot in the blood vessel (thrombosis) where the catheter is inserted should be considered by your doctor.
• von Willebrand disease
  If you have a known risk of developing blood clots, you must be monitored for early signs of thrombosis (blood clotting). Your doctor should give you treatment to prevent thrombosis.

Virus safety

When medicines are made from human blood or plasma, certain measures are put in place by the manufacturer to prevent infections being passed on to patients. These include:

• careful selection of blood and plasma donors to make sure those at risk of carrying infections are excluded,
• the testing of each donation and pools of plasma for signs of virus/infections,
• inclusion of steps in the processing of the blood or plasma that can inactivate or remove viruses.

Despite these measures, when medicines prepared from human blood or plasma are administered, the possibility of passing on infection cannot be totally excluded. This also applies to any unknown or emerging viruses or other types of infections.

The measures taken are considered effective for so-called “enveloped” viruses such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV, the AIDS virus), hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus (which cause inflammation of the liver), and for the “non-enveloped” hepatitis A virus (which also causes inflammation of the liver).

The measures taken may be of limited value against non-enveloped viruses such as parvovirus B19.

Parvovirus B19 infection may be serious

• for pregnant women (as there is a risk of infection of the unborn child) and
• for individuals with a weakened immune system or with an increased production of red blood cells due to certain types of anaemia (e.g. sickle cell anaemia or haemolytic anaemia).

Your doctor may recommend that you consider being vaccinated against hepatitis A and B if you regularly/repeatedly receive human plasma-derived medicines such as Voncento.

It is strongly recommended that every time Voncento is given, you should record the date of administration, the batch number and the injected volume in your treatment diary.

Children and adolescents

Voncento has not been studied in children with haemophilia A under the age of 12 years. Therefore, Voncento is not recommended to be used in children with haemophilia A under the age of 12 years.

The listed warnings and precautions apply to adults, children and adolescents.

Other medicines and Voncento

• Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you are taking, have recently taken or might take any other medicines.

Pregnancy and breast-feeding

• If you are pregnant or breast-feeding, think you may be pregnant or are planning to have a baby, ask your doctor or pharmacist for advice before taking this medicine.
• During pregnancy and breast-feeding, Voncento should be given only if it is clearly needed.

Driving and using machines

Voncento does not affect your ability to drive and use machines.

Voncento contains sodium

Voncento contains up to 29.5 mg (1.28 mmol) sodium per vial. Please take this into account if you are on a controlled sodium diet.

Dose

The amount of VWF and FVIII you need to take and the duration of treatment depend on:

• the severity of your disease
• the site and intensity of the bleeding
• your clinical condition.
• your body weight

(see also section “The following information is intended for healthcare professionals only”).

If you have been prescribed Voncento to use at home, your doctor will make sure that you are shown how to inject it and how much to use.

Follow the directions given to you by your doctor.

Use in children and adolescents

The dose in VWD in the paediatric population (1 to 18 years), and dosing in haemophilia A in adolescents aged 12 to 18 years is based on body weight and worked out in the same way as for adults. In some cases, especially in younger patients, higher doses may be needed.

If you use more Voncento than you should

Five cases of overdose have been reported from clinical trials. No side effects have been associated with these reports. The risk of developing blood clots (thrombosis) cannot be excluded in case of an extremely high dose, especially in patients with VWD.

If you forget to use Voncento

• Proceed with your next dose immediately and continue at regular intervals as advised by your doctor.
• Do not take a double dose to make up for a forgotten dose.

If you stop using Voncento

Do not stop using Voncento without consulting your doctor.

Reconstitution and application

General Instructions

• The powder must be mixed with the solvent (liquid) and withdrawn from the vial under aseptic conditions.
• Voncento must not be mixed with other medicines, diluents or solvents except those mentioned in section 6.
• The solution should be clear or slightly opalescent, i.e. it might be sparkling when held up to the light but must not contain any obvious particles. After filtering or withdrawal (see below) the solution should be checked by eye, before it is used. Do not use the solution if it is visibly cloudy or if it contains flakes or particles.
• Any unused product or waste material should be disposed of in accordance with local requirements and as instructed by your doctor.

Reconstitution

Without opening the vials, warm the Voncento powder and the liquid to room or body temperature. This can be done either by leaving the vials at room temperature for about an hour, or by holding them in your hands for a few minutes.

DO NOT expose the vials to direct heat. The vials must not be heated above body temperature (37 ºC).

Carefully remove the protective caps from the vials, and clean the exposed rubber stoppers with an alcohol swab. Allow the vials to dry before opening the Mix2Vial package (which contains the filter transfer device), then follow the instructions given below.

1. Open the Mix2Vial package by peeling off the lid. Do not remove the Mix2Vial from the blister package!

2. Place the solvent vial on an even, clean surface and hold the vial tight. Take the Mix2Vial together with the blister package and push the spike of the blue adapter end straight down through the solvent vial stopper.

3. Carefully remove the blister package from the Mix2Vial set by holding at the rim, and pulling vertically upwards. Make sure that you only pull away the blister package and not the Mix2Vial set.

4. Place the product vial on an even and firm surface. Turn the solvent vial upside down with the Mix2Vial set attached and push the spike of the transparent adapter end straight down through the product vial stopper. The solvent will automatically flow into the product vial.

5. With one hand grasp the product-side of the Mix2Vial set. With the other hand grasp the solvent-side and unscrew the set carefully counterclockwise into two pieces to avoid excessive build-up of foam when dissolving the product. Discard the solvent vial with the blue Mix2Vial adapter attached.

6. Gently swirl the product vial with the transparent adapter attached until the substance is fully dissolved. Do not shake.

7. Draw air into an empty, sterile syringe. While the product vial is upright, connect the syringe to the Mix2Vial´s Luer Lock fitting by screwing clockwise. Inject air into the product vial.

Withdrawal and Application

8. While keeping the syringe plunger pressed, turn the system upside down and draw the solution into the syringe by pulling the plunger back slowly.

9. Now that the solution has been transferred into the syringe, firmly hold on to the barrel of the syringe (keeping the syringe plunger facing down) and disconnect the transparent Mix2Vial adapter from the syringe by unscrewing counterclockwise.

Use the venipuncture kit supplied with the product, insert the needle into a vein. Let blood flow back to the end of the tube. Attach the syringe to the threaded, locking end of the venipuncture kit. The use of plastic disposable syringes is recommended as the ground glass surfaces of all-glass syringes tend to stick with solutions of this type. Inject/infuse the reconstituted solution slowly (at a rate not more than 6 ml per minute) into the vein following the instructions given to you by your doctor. Take care not to get any blood in the syringe containing the product.

In case large volumes of Voncento are required, it is possible to pool several vials of Voncento together, via a commercially available infusion set (e.g. a syringe pump for giving medicines into a vein). However, in these cases the initially reconstituted solution of Voncento should not be diluted any further.

Check yourself for any side effects that might happen straight away. If you have any side effects that might be related to the administration of Voncento, the injection or infusion should be stopped (see also section 2).

Side effects in children and adolescents

Side effects in children are expected to be the same as in adults.

Reporting of side effects

If you get any side effects, talk to your doctor, nurse or pharmacist. This includes any possible side effects not listed in this leaflet. You can also report side effects directly (see details below). By reporting side effects you can help provide more information on the safety of this medicine.

UK:

Ireland:

What Voncento contains

The active substance is:

1000 IU FVIII and 2400 IU VWF per vial; after reconstitution with 10 ml of water for injection approx. 100 IU/ml FVIII and 240 IU/ml VWF. See section “The following information is intended for healthcare professionals only” for further information.

The other ingredients are :

Calcium chloride, human albumin, sodium chloride, sodium citrate, sucrose, trometamol.

See last paragraph of section 2.

Solvent: Water for injections

What Voncento looks like and contents of the pack

Voncento is presented as a white powder and is supplied with water for injection as solvent.

The reconstituted solution should be clear to slightly opalescent, i.e. it might sparkle when held up to the light but must not contain any obvious particles.

Presentation

One pack with 1000 IU/2400 IU containing:

• 1 vial with powder
• 1 vial with 10 ml water for injections

Marketing Authorization Holder and Manufacturer

For any information about this medicine, please contact the local representative of the Marketing Authorisation Holder: