Strategy for Secure and Sustainable Plasma Supply

There is a sustained increase in the global demand for plasma-derived medicinal products and this is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. The driver for the collection of plasma is currently mainly the immunoglobulin products which have a steady increase in global use. Currently, the raw material plasma supply to meet this need is predominantly from the US where 5% of the global population provides approximately 70% of the global plasma supply, and most of this plasma is collected by the commercial sector.  

IPFA advocates a more diversified global plasma supply to minimize the risks of product shortage resulting from US plasma supply interruption or failure. The last years’ pandemic has shown a negative impact on US plasma collection which further underlines the vulnerability of the global situation. IPFA calls for National and Regional policies and strategies to promote increased plasma collection by the public sector who collect blood and plasma without financial gain for donors, and for a reduction of recovered plasma wastage worldwide by increased focus on plasma quality.  

Please click here to access the paper “Plasma is a strategic resource” published in Transfusion 2016;56;3133-3137. 

IPFA Donor Information Standard

The IPFA Donor Information Standard defines the ethical and guiding principles to maintain and enhance the quality of donor information of its member organisations involved in the collection of human blood and plasma for fractionation. It focuses on educating and informing donors on the destination of their voluntary recovered plasma and source plasmapheresis donations and their use for further processing via fractionation into PDMPs.

The purpose of this standard is to establish minimum requirements for education and information provided to donors to:

  • Improve donor knowledge and insight into the full extent of the use of their donation
  • Promote transparency to ensure sufficient information is provided to the donor to make an informed decision made with full knowledge.
Each IPFA blood or plasma center Member may provide the information in any format of their choice, in developing or adapting their electronic, paper or video-based donor information and education system (or materials) based on these standards to provide relevant and appropriate information to donors, as long as it contains the main messages and criteria and fulfills the objectives.