U.S. fertilisation programme established by Aust. firm

Press, 1 February 1986, Page 11

U.S. fertilisation programme established by Aust. firm

NZPA-AP New York An Australian company hasi established what it plans to make the largest test-tube fertilisation programme in the United States, near New York city and will open a second clinic in Birmingham, Alabama. Officials said that plans fori the New York programme, due to.begin fertilisation procedures in mid-March, would make it the .largest in the nation in terms of total number of pregnancy attempts a year.

I.V.F. Australia (U.S.A.), Ltd,, would bring "the most innovative, the most highly developed (technology) in the world to the United States” through its link to Monash University in Melbourne, said Dr John Stange!, clinical director of the programme being established at United Hospital in Port Chester, New York. The programme would

not do research, but would draw continually on developments by Monash researchers, including a noted in-vitro fertilisation researcher, Dr Alan Troknson, said the comppany.

Dr Stangel said the clinic would provide about 1000 treatment "cycles," or pregnancy attempts, a year. That translated to about 300 to 500 couples a year, said Dr Kathryn Honea, medical director of LV.F. Australia.

Dr Howard Jones, president of the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, said in a telephone interview that his institute now provided about 500 cycles a year, the most in the United States.

At the New York programme, about one in five women was expected to get pregnant in each treatment cycle, Dr Honea said.

It would take up to four

cycles to produce a’ birth in about half the patients, said Ms Patricia HoneaFleming, chief psychologist for LV.F. Australia.

The treatment removes eggs from the ovary, fertilises them in the labora-' tory and places three of four resulting embryos in the uterus. In some cases, unused embryos would be. frozen for later use if needed, Dr Honea said. The cost will be SUSS7OO ($10,830) a cycle if the eggs were removed through standard surgery, SUS47OO ($8930) a cycle if

an alternate removal procedure was used, Dr Honea said. A SUS2BOO ($5320) fee would be charged for implanting embryos that had been removed and frozen. Few insurance companies paid for test-tube fertilisation, said Ms Margaret Einhorn, of Resolve Incorporated, a national infertility support group. Dr Jones, of the Virginia clinic, said his programme cost about SUS47OO ($8930) a cycle with standard egg-re-moval surgery.