Blood transfusion: However, the major advances came from developments in the field of blood transfusion. A report from a surgeon, Samuel Lane, in The Lancet in 1840 described the control of post-operative bleeding with fresh blood in a boy with severe haemophilia. However, a lack of understanding of blood groups and basic transfusion methods hindered further development at the time. The identification of factor VIII and the development of specific assays then permitted the subsequent development of therapeutic materials.
Plasma concentrates: In the early 1950s, plasma from animals was used for treatment. While often effective, allergic reactions to these porcine and bovine materials were frequent and often severe. The work of Dr. Edwin Cohn in developing fractionation of plasma with variation of temperature and concentrations of saline and alcohol led to the development of fairly crude plasma concentrates of human factor VIII in a number of centres ("AHG" or "antihaemophilic globulin").

A truly major advance was the discovery by Dr. Judith Pool in 1965 that slow thawing of plasma to around 4oC led to the appearance of a brown sediment which was rich in factor VIII, which she called cryoprecipitate. Within a decade, lyophilised coagulation factor concentrates made an appearance. These offered considerable advantages: they could be stored in a domestic refrigerator at 4oC, and permitted the administration of a large and assayed quantity of coagulation factor rapidly and in a small volume.

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