U.S. Plasma Collection Centers Supply a Booming Industry But Is It Exploitative of Donors?

Earlier in my career I was a hospital blood banker and became familiar with commercial plasma centers that paid individuals for their plasma. Here's a link to the web page of one of them currently in business:CSL Plasma. Such centers are often located in poorer sections of towns. This aligns with the notion that they cater to people down on their luck who donate their plasma because of a financial need. The plasma collected in such centers has various uses including the manufacture of components such as albumin and coagulation factors. I had largely forgotten about this plasma industry until I read a recent article in theNew York Times (see:What Is the Blood of a Poor Person Worth?). Below is an excerpt from the NYT piece:The plasma business is booming in the United States, with the number of collection centers ...more than doubling since 2005, and global sales roughly quadrupling since 2000 to be more than $21 billion in 2017. Many developed countries have banned paying people for their blood, but not the United States.Blood products made up 1.9 percent of all American exports in 2016, more than soybeans, more than computers....[T]here is an underside to all that growth: The industry depends on the blood of the very poor.Ethicists, sociologists, business executives and “plassers” themselves, as the donors are sometimes called, are increasingly asking: Is the business exploitative, taking advantage of desperate people? Or is it beneficial, offering m...

Source: Lab Soft News - February 4, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Blood banking Food and Drug Administration Healthcare Business Medical Consumerism Medical Ethics Source Type: blogs