Abstract
In recent years, several organizations have made concentrated efforts toward standardization of allergenic extract materials. A variety of standard extracts are now available for use by commercial manufacturers who, upon preparing new extracts, can calibrate their product to the standard of reference extract. There are several advantages to the use of standardized extracts, such as more accurate administration of extracts in treatment by immunotherapy and the ability for physicians to compare different individual extracts. Standardized extracts will most likely be more expensive, but they will also be more cost effective because of consistent potency. It appears that this is a small price to pay for quality control, which, until the onset of standardized extracts, has been lacking in the manufacture and use of allergenic extracts.
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