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CompletedNCT00486590Updated Sep 17, 2021

Evaluation of Prolact-Plus Human Milk Fortifier

An interventional study of Prolact-Plus Human Milk Fortifier in Infant, Very Low Birth Weight, sponsored by Prolacta Bioscience. Completed at 4 sites in United States. Open to participants aged 1 Day to 30 Days. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2021-09-17.

Sponsored by Prolacta Bioscience · Not applicable, Interventional, and Supportive care

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
105
Allocation
Non-randomized
Ages
1 Day to 30 Days
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Prolacta Bioscience has developed the first purely human fortifier, Prolact-Plus, that can provide a source of many of the required nutrients for premature, newborn infants, particularly protein and calories. This product is made from donor human milk from which the skim (non-lipid portion) has been separated and then concentrated. A certain amount of the lipid content has been added back to achieve higher caloric content within a small delivery volume. The product is then pasteurized and filled in small quantities in order to allow for the addition of mother's own milk (or, possibly, milk from another donor). The goal of the preparation is to achieve an increase of approximately 4 cal/oz of mother's milk and to provide a protein level (when mixed with average pre-term milk) of about 3.5-3.8 g/100 Kcal of feed.

The data on Prolact-Plus will be obtained prospectively from infants who will receive human milk fortified in this fashion. The data on standard,bovine (cow)-fortified milk will be obtained retrospectively from medical records at the participating institutions. While this design is not necessarily optimal in this setting, it is an efficient and quick approach to evaluating the acute clinical effect of Prolact-Plus. It is anticipated that further studies will be conducted that will examine longer-term accounts and possibly do this in a controlled, randomized environment.

The goal of this study is to evaluate the short-term effect of Prolact-Plus fortified human milk when compared with bovine-based fortification of human milk on parameters such as growth and short-term development, infectious complications and incidence of feeding intolerance in a cohort design. Statistically, the study will attempt to evaluate a null hypothesis of equivalent results with respect to these parameters between the two types of fortifiers as compared with a two-sided alternative (difference between the groups).

In addition, data will be collected on overall survival and length of stay in the NICU. These data will be collected for descriptive purposes, although an attempt will be made to compare the findings with those obtained from the bovine-based fortifier.

Read the detailed description

This will be a cohort designed study in pre-term infants (\<32 weeks of gestation) comparing bovine fortified (using any one of the commercially available fortifier products) human milk with Prolact-Plus (human) fortified human milk in which the former cohort will be obtained retrospectively and the latter obtained prospectively in each participating institution. The number of infants to be included in this study is a minimum of 50 in each group who complete the 30 days on study. (If a baby drops out of the study prior to 30 days of evaluation, then they would be replaced in order to achieve that number.) This sample size was not determined statistically, but rather is based solely on the desire to obtain a reasonable amount of data to evaluate the new human fortifier in this setting. However, from the perspective of a non-inferiority evaluation of an endpoint such as feeding intolerance, consider the following. Assuming a rate of 15% for this outcome for the retrospective cohort, then with 50 subjects per cohort, the study would be able to demonstrate a lack of inferiority of the human-based fortifier with a delta of 20% using a power of slightly greater than 80% and a one-sided 2.5% significance level. (By a "delta of 20%" it is implied that a theoretical feeding intolerance rate for the Prolact-Plus of no worse than 35% would result in a conclusion of lack of inferiority with the given levels of significance and power.) Conversely, if the human-based fortifier is able to reduce the feeding intolerance rate from 15% to about 1%, then with the sample sizes in this trial, this would be doable with 80% power and 5% significance (two-sided). (Thus, the trial, in theory, also could demonstrate a dramatic reduction in this rate.) The retrospective data will be obtained from available medical charts at the participating institution and the selected infants should reflect the most recently treated (within the 12 month period prior to the initiation of the prospective phase of this protocol) and the numbers should be similar in kind to the number treated prospectively in that institution.

02

Conditions studied

  • Infant, Very Low Birth Weight

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Keywords

  • Human milk fortification
  • Premature neonate
  • Very low birth weight
03

In context

Premature Birth

2,610 studies on the registry are indexed under Premature Birth; 507 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 105 is above the median of 84 across 1,722 interventional studies indexed under Premature Birth.

Browse Premature Birth studies →

Lead sponsor

Prolacta Bioscience is the lead sponsor of 8 studies on the registry; 1 is open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
1 Day to 30 Days
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  1. Between 23 and 32 weeks gestational age
  2. Weigh between 500 and 1600g
  3. In the retrospective group, an infant must have been able to adhere to a feeding protocol that included only mother's own milk fortified by either bovine or human product from the time that enteral feeding began (or whenever fortified human milk feeding began) through the next 30 days of life or hospital discharge, whichever came first.
  4. In the prospective group, the infant must be expected to be able to adhere to a feeding protocol that includes only mother's own milk fortified by the human product from the time that enteral feeding began (or whenever fortified human milk feeding began) through the next 30 days of life or hospital discharge, whichever comes first.
  5. Informed consent obtained from parent or legal guardian.
  6. Mother must be willing to adhere to a feeding protocol that includes 30 days of mother's own milk for the prospective arm of the study.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Less than a 50% probability of survival through the study period (first 30 days of enteral feeding or hospital discharge).
  2. On any other clinical study during the study period
  3. Receipt of any bovine-based formula or fortifier prior to the infant's enrollment in the study.
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Supportive care
Allocation
Non-randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
105 participants (actual)

Interventions

  • ProcedureProlact-Plus Human Milk Fortifier
06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Feeding intolerance

    Time frame: 30 days

  2. Necrotizing enterocolitis

    Time frame: 30 days

Secondary outcomes

  1. Length of stay in NICU and hospital

    Time frame: Indeterminate

  2. Growth parameters, e.g. weight, head circumference, and length

    Time frame: 30 days

07

Study locations

4 sites
  • Shands Children's Hospital
    Gainesville, Florida 32610-0296, United States
  • Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital
    Hollywood, Florida 33021, United States
  • Miami Children's Hospital
    Miami, Florida 33155, United States
  • Memorial Hospital of South Bend
    South Bend, Indiana 46601, United States
08

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
Not marked actual or estimatedDates not marked actual or estimated

The record gives a start of Aug 2006, a primary completion of Aug 2007 and a completion of Aug 2007. It does not say whether these dates are actual or estimated.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Jun 12, 2007
First posted
Jun 14, 2007
Start
Aug 2006
Primary completionActual
Aug 2007
CompletionActual
Aug 2007
Last update
Sep 17, 2021
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Sep 17, 2021, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT00486590
Lead sponsor
Prolacta Bioscience
First posted
Jun 14, 2007
Start date
Aug 2006
Primary completion
Aug 2007
Completion
Aug 2007
Last update
Sep 17, 2021

Study contacts

Martin L Lee, PhD
study director · Prolacta Bioscience

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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This study is completed, as verified in Feb 2008. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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