Hemin Interactions

Pregnancy & Breastfeeding

8.1 Pregnancy Risk Summary About 50% of the women with acute intermittent porphyria experience an acute attack of porphyria in pregnancy and/or the puerperium. It is most severe in early pregnancy and the puerperium, and can result in fatal outcome. Although anecdotal evidence suggests safe use of hematin during pregnancy, the available human data is not sufficient to establish the presence or absence of drug-associated risk. Animal reproduction studies have not been conducted with hematin. It is also not known whether hematin can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman or can affect reproduction capacity. PANHEMATIN should be given to a pregnant woman only if clearly needed. Avoid administering hematin in severe pre-eclampsia because of a theoretical risk of potentiation of the coagulation disorder [see Warnings and Precautions ( 5.3 )] . In the U.S. general population, the estimated background risk of major birth defects and miscarriage in clinically recognized pregnancies is 2-4% and 15-20%, respectively.