IPFA welcomes new member organisations and Executive Board members
- Centro Nazionale Sangue (CNS) from Italy
- Creative Testing Solutions (CTS) from USA
The CTS membership brings a new category of members to IPFA from not-for-profit research and clinical testing institutions. This sector is very much at the heart of our association and brings together the different stakeholders we represent and work with. The CTS membership also means a transition of our connection to Vitalant and their research unit to CTS. IPFA is very grateful to Vitalant for its long and active membership and especially thanks its board member and former President Rob Van Tuyle for his outstanding contribution to the association.
Elected as new organisation representatives and Executive Board members:
- Vincenzo De Angelis (CNS)
- Marion Lanteri (CTS)
- Pierre-Olivier Renaud (Canadian Blood Services, CBS)
The Centro nazionale sangue – CNS (Italian National Blood Centre) is the national competent authority for blood and blood components acting as coordinator of the Italian national blood system, under the aegis of the Ministry of Health. It also carries out technical-scientific functions to reach strategic goals such as: self-sufficiency of blood and blood products, promotion of voluntary non-remunerated blood donation, high quality and safety of blood, components, and continuous development of transfusion medicine.
The plasma collected in Italy comes from voluntary, periodic, responsible, anonymous and non-remunerated donors. The Italian Regions, as Health Local Authorities, individually or in association, send the plasma collected by the blood establishments to authorised and affiliated companies to be further fractionated into plasma-derived medicinal products (PDMPs) under tendered contracts. Upon request, CNS is involved and works with the Italian Regions to support the set-up of these arrangements.
About CTS:
Creative Testing Solutions (CTS) is the world’s largest nonprofit blood and plasma donor testing laboratory organization. CTS is responsible for testing over 65 percent of the U.S. blood supply and a significant portion of U.S.-derived source plasma collections. CTS partners with over 100 healthcare entities and operates eight high-volume testing labs across the U.S. CTS has a specialty lab for more time-intensive testing and a Research and Development Support Department for research-based testing activities. CTS is owned by the three largest U.S. blood service and transfusion medicine providers: American Red Cross, OneBlood, and Vitalant.