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Infant botulism treatment and prevention program

The mission of the IBTPP is to provide and improve the treatment of infant botulism and to prevent infant botulism and related diseases.

How to Obtain Clinical Consultation and Order BabyBIGĀ®

  • Two vials of BabyBIGĀ®For no-cost clinical consultation for a patient under 15 months of age with suspected infant botulism, the patient's physician should contact the Infant Botulism Treatment and Prevention Program (IBTPP) on-call physician at (510) 231-7600 (24/7/365). The IBTPP physicians will provide consultation without obligation to order BabyBIGĀ®.
  • To obtain BabyBIGĀ® for a patient with suspected infant botulism, the treating physician must first contact the IBTPP on-call physicians for a clinical consultation. For a checklist of requirements for ordering clinicians/hospitals, please visit our infant botulism main page.
  • The decision to treat with BabyBIGĀ® should be based on clinical presentation and findings and should not be delayed by waiting for results of laboratory confirmatory testing. Prompt treatment of infant botulism patients with BabyBIGĀ® immediately ends their toxemia and enables motor nerve regeneration to begin.
  • The number of vials needed for treatment is based on the weight of the infant and is determined at the time of order.
  • BabyBIGĀ®, Botulism Immune Globulin Intravenous (Human) (BIG-IV), is an orphan drug that consists of human-derived anti-botulism-toxin antibodies that is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of infant botulism types A and B.Patient with infant bolulism
  • The product is solvent-detergent-treated, sterile, lyophilized powder of immunoglobulin G (IgG), stabilized with 5% sucrose and 1% albumin (human). It contains no preservative. The purified immunoglobulin is derived from pooled adult plasma from persons immunized with recombinant botulinum vaccine for serotypes A and B (rBV A/B) who were selected for their high titers of neutralizing antibody against botulinum neurotoxins type A and B. All donors were tested and found negative for antibodies against the human immunodeficiency virus and the hepatitis B and hepatitis C viruses. The pooled plasma was fractionated by cold ethanol precipitation of the proteins according to the Cohn/Oncley method and modified to yield a product suitable for intravenous administration.
  • To date, use of BabyBIGĀ® to treat more than 2,180 US infant botulism patients has resulted in more than 128 years of avoided hospital stay and more than $174 million of avoided hospital costs. On average, infant botulism patients have an approximately 3.6 week reduction in time spent in the hospital, resulting in over $94,000 in avoided hospital costs (when compared to the pivotal clinical trial placebo group).
  • Invoice and Purchase Agreement (IPA)  The following links are for the form that your facility will need to fill out and send to the IBTPP in order to obtain BabyBIGĀ®. The IBTPP clinical consultant working with your treating medical team will instruct you where to go for the appropriate IPA and will provide an IBTPP invoice number to be entered on the form.   

If your patient is older than 15 months, please see CDPH Botulism Information for Health Professionals for instructions on requesting antitoxin.

Also visit our main infant botulism page for in-depth information.

Contact us by phone, fax, or email:

Phone: (510) 231-7600 (24/7/365) 

Fax: (510) 231-7609

Email: IBTPP@infantbotulism.org

For more in-depth information, please visit our main infant botulism page.

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