Plasma donors have given an estimated 500 million units of plasma over the past three decades, saving the lives of countless people with rare diseases.
The plasma is used to treat maladies such as Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder which causes the body’s immune system to mistakenly attacks part of its peripheral nervous system, and Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, an inherited disorder that may cause lung disease and liver disease.
Sign up for a plasma donation and you’ll notice something different than a blood drive: These centers pay, and donors could earn up to $1,000 the first month that they donate.
Despite the money, Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association head of global communications Faraz Kermani insists “it’s not a payment.”
“It’s compensation for effort and time that they donate,” he said. The needle prick is the same, but plasma donation takes about four times as long as whole blood donation.
Many of these plasma centers are subsidiaries of profitable publicly traded life sciences companies, so the money donors receive comes from the companies themselves. BioLife Plasma Services, with a location in Greenville, is a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Takeda, one of the top 20 largest pharmaceutical companies worldwide by revenue. CSL Plasma, with locations in Greenville, Spartanburg and Rock Hill, is a subsidiary of Australia-based CSL Limited, which develops innovative biotherapies and vaccines and reported more than $7 billion in revenue in 2021.
“Through years of industry acquisitions, mergers and consolidations, many of the companies that collect the plasma are a division or the right hand of the manufacturing company,” explained Mat Gulick, a PPTA spokesman. “They’re not selling it to a company because they are these companies. It’s part of their main manufacturing line.”
Think of whole blood as local, and plasma as global. When someone donates blood at The Blood Connection, it’s used locally and quickly. Plasma, though, is a worldwide industry, and the United States is its biggest provider. U.S. plasma accounts for 38% of the plasma used in Europe.
Donating plasma is similar to giving blood. After the needle is placed in a vein and blood comes down the tube, plasma is separated from the red blood cells and other cellular components in a process called plasmapheresis. The rest of the blood is returned to the body with sterile saline solution to help the body replace the plasma that’s been taken away.
After a donation is complete, the plasma is bagged, frozen and held for 60 days of testing, and after that it takes five to 10 months to be manufactured into a therapy.
The popularity of plasma donation has gone up in recent years. People can donate up to two times in a seven-day period, 104 times in a year, and while most don’t donate the maximum number of times, 53 million units were donated in 2019 alone.
The pandemic saw a 20% decline in plasma donations. The significant decline was not matched with a decline in clinical need, and “it’s taking a while to come back,” Gulick said.
It takes about 900 plasma donations to treat one person with Alpha1 for one year, and about 1,200 plasma donations to treat severe hemophilia in that time.
“When you think about that… you start to get the idea of how much is really needed,” Gulick said.
The GBS | CIDP Foundation is currently hosting a Plasma Please campaign to encourage plasma donation required for treatment of Guillain-Barré syndrome, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy and related conditions. Those interested in finding a donation center can visit donatingplasma.org.
