"Right around that time, HIV entered the blood system. And then the plan was to turn it into profit making drugs like the one that I take. So back in the 1990s, China had tried to create what they called the plasma economy, where they were paying poor farmers for their blood plasma. I also moved there knowing that China had had a big plasma debacle. I was a reporter there, and I moved there knowing that I needed this plasma drug. Kathleen McLaughlin: "I lived in China full time for 15 years. On Kathleen's beginning experience with blood plasma And I just got to the point where I needed to try and figure that out." And for 20 years off and on, I've thought about where this medication comes from and who is donating and selling plasma to provide it. "And I have a lot of time to think sitting in a chair, just sort of watching this fluid drip into my own veins. They're very long, boring, tedious infusions of kind of a lot of medication. And I have on average, a half a dozen to ten infusions per year to keep this illness at bay. So it's the immune particles that are extracted from plasma. It's called intravenous human immunoglobulin. And the treatment for it is a medication that is made from human blood plasma. Kathleen McLaughlin: "About 20 years ago, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. On researching the global plasma industry So that is where most of the plasma is processed and turned into." And then the third group of products are the blood clotting factors that were used predominantly for hemophilia and related bleeding disorders, but other blood clotting problems as well. It can be typically as an IVIG or intravenous Immunoglobulin. A second product is the Immunoglobulin that Kathleen has taken. It's used in a lot of clinical situations. It helps those on volume expand or if you will. So the fractions that are most commonly used are albumin, which is needed in blood. They are not directly given back into individuals from a paid plasma donor. All of the plasma donor collections that are made are fractionated. Some of them are at very high concentration. Morey Blinder: "There are thousands of proteins that are in plasma. On what makes it such a medically valuable resourceĭr. And in fact, the FDA requires that products be labeled as volunteer or paid donor." The plasma is usually collected in for-profit centers, and the whole blood that's collected is generally volunteer, the donors are not reimbursed for this financially. Just the plasma that we've been speaking about. And there are ways to donate the blood as whole blood, usually through volunteer donor programs. The rest of the blood is composed of the cells, such as red cells and white cells and platelets. ![]() Morey Blinder: "Plasma is the liquid part of blood, which is about 55% of the total blood volume. Mary Seebach, Middletown, Ohio resident and plasma seller. Kathi Young, Cameron, North Carolina resident and plasma seller. Jenni Hecht, Sturgis, Michigan resident and plasma seller. ( Lyons, Columbia, South Carolina resident who sold plasma in college. Patrick Herdener, longtime blood plasma donor who donates more than 100 times per year.ĭarryl Wellington, journalist who has reported on the plasma economy. Professor of medicine at the School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Author of the new book Blood Money: The Story of Life, Death and Profit Inside America’s Blood Industry. ( Morey Blinder, hematologist. Today, On Point: Inside the for-profit business of selling blood plasma around the world. ![]() "If you go to a for-profit plasma center to sell plasma, you can do it twice a week, up to 104 times a year."īut what is plasma used for, and why is it a big, largely hidden business? you are limited to donating 13 times a year - once every 28 days," Kathleen McLaughlin, author of the new book Blood Money, says. It’s part of a global, multibillion dollar business. Millions of Americans sell their blood plasma every year. Sign up for the On Point newsletter here. Photo: Waltraud Grubitzsch/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa (Photo by Waltraud Grubitzsch/picture alliance via Getty Images) ![]() However, plasma-based drugs are still urgently needed for the treatment of chronic, genetic and various life-threatening diseases. The supply situation is currently critical in Saxony because the willingness to donate is declining. In the modern blood processing and logistics center, blood and plasma samples collected throughout Germany are analyzed. 09 June 2022, Saxony, Leipzig: Employees work in the central laboratory of the Haema AG blood and plasma donation service on modern analysis equipment for blood and plasma samples.
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