Comment on Neiser et al. Assessment of Dextran Antigenicity of Intravenous Iron Preparations with Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2016, 17, 1185.

All IV iron complexes carry a risk of potentially fatal allergic type hypersensitivity reactions. The mechanism(s) behind these reactions is unknown but the limited data available suggests that classic IgE mediated allergy is exceedingly rare, if ever occurring. Iron-carbohydrate molecules are complex nano-particles and trying to reduce the risk of serious hypersensitivity to antibody binding of an artificial antibody seems meaningless. A recently published analysis of safety data from randomized clinical trials confirms the method reported by Neiser to be useless to predict reaction risk. In conclusion, the study by Neiser et al. is biased, contains no new information, and has no clinical relevance. We are concerned that the association of the authors with a commercial entity has caused a conflict of interest that biases not only the results, but the entire experimental setup against competitors. (Comment on Neiser et al. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2016, 17, 1185, doi:10.3390/ijms17071185).