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The article presents the analysis of the World Health Organization Expert Committee on the collaborative studies about the international standards for testing and detection of hepatitis B surface antigen (HbsAg) and anti-hepatitis C virus antibodies. These studies aim to replace the International Standard for HbsAg and to assess its suitability for replacement preparation and calibration. The Committee assesses that the studies have appeared to be adequate in the area.

The article presents the analysis of the World Health Organization Expert Committee on the collaborative studies about cytokines, growth factors and endocrinological substances. These studies aim to assess the relative activities of preparations of natural and recombinant interferon beta in a range of bioassays and to establish reference materials on the area. Furthermore, the Committee had recommended the validity of these studies.

The article presents the analysis of the World Health Organization Expert Committee on the collaborative studies which aim to replace the current International Reference Preparation. These collaborative studies had assessed the relative sensitivity of cell culture assays and chorioallantoic membrane egg assays for smallpox vaccines as well as potency determination of yellow fever vaccines. Futhermore, the Committee stresses their agreement on the content of the studies.

The article presents the analysis of the World Health Organization Expert Committee on the proposed international reference panels for validation of serological and nucleic acid based tests on hepatitis B and hepatitis C detection. The Committee has revealed progress on the development of the international reference preparation which is designed to assist the analytical sensitivity of tests to all hepatitis B surface antigen tests kits worldwide. Meanwhile, standard for heparin was introduced.

The article presents the analysis of the World Health Organization Expert Committee on the collaborative studies about the international standard for Factor VIII, low-molecular-weight heparin, and prekallikrein activator. These collaborative studies aimed to establish common batch of the reference preparation, provide information on relative clinical values of different assays, and replacement of European Pharmacopoeia reference preparations. The Committee also shows impression on the studies.

The article presents the analysis of the World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee on collaborative studies depicting cytokines, growth factors, and endocrinological substance. The Committee stresses their appreciation on the study which appropriately considered the valuable reagents of human chorionic gonadotrophin immunoassays. They also recommended the study on the suitability of a lyophilized recombinant human ciliary neurotrophic factor as Reference Reagent for bioassay.

The article presents the analysis of the World Health Organization Expert Committee on the collaborative studies about the standardization of human papillomavirus vaccine and human immunodeficiency virus (HPV) neutralizing antibody assays. These studies are designed to harmonize diagnostic procedures for HPV DNA detection and evaluation. Furthermore, the Committee stresses that these studies should include neutralizing assays and emphasizes their agreement on the proposed course of action.

The article presents the analysis of the World Health Organization Expert Committee on the collaborative studies about the preparation, characterization and establishment of biological reference materials. The Committee stresses that the collaborative study failed to include restrictions on the methods that will take into account on a given preparation. Furthermore, the Committee suggests that the choice of unit used in the collaborative study must be based on physicochemical information.

The article presents the analysis of the World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee on the proposed establishment of the study on pertussis toxin standard as the International Standard for histamine-sensitizing. The Committee has revealed the standard relation between the National Insittute for Biological Standard and Control and the pertussis toxin assays. However, the Committee found that these assays appeared to differ in specific pertussis toxin activity.

The article presents the analysis of the World Health Organization Expert Committee on the collaborative studies about anti-toxoplasma serum, human. The Committee stresses that the studies had assessed the suitability of the candidate preparation for use in cell-killing assays and calibration. However, the value assignment results obtained in the study were found to be based on accepted gold standard method, which means that it cannot directly replaced the existing anti-toxoplasma standard.

The article presents the analysis of the World Health Organization Expert Committee on the proposed establishment of antibodies against human platelet antigen 5b as a Reference Reagent. This material is part of the collaborative studies which describes the calibration of a freeze-dried preparation of pooled human plasma. However, the Committee revealed that they did not received this proposal and therefore it needs further discussion for approval.