![]() ![]() With demand for these therapies growing at 6-10 percent each year for more than a decade, it has risen to become America's 11th-largest export category. Plasma represents 1.6 percent of American's total exports and nearly three-quarters of the total global supply. Our Precious Bodily FluidsĪmerican plasma is the lifeblood of this $26 billion global industry. The problem could be quickly and cheaply remedied if it weren't for irresponsible guidance from global health bodies and an unfounded bias against paid donation. ![]() A hyperimmune globulin is a laser-it delivers the isolated and concentrated antibody and nothing else.īetween the depressed supply of plasma and the possible future uptick in demand, the world could well be heading for a devastating shortfall. This is a shotgun approach-the patient receives all of the components and proteins present in convalescent plasma, and not just the antibodies. Should this work, it will likely be due to the introduction of antibodies from those who have recovered from COVID-19 into those whose immune system is still trying to figure out how to make antibodies to fight off the infection. Transfusions of convalescent plasma are undergoing trials in many countries with plenty of early successes being reported. The plasma industry is working on a promising hyperimmune globulin treatment for the coronavirus. Plasma is a key ingredient in a possible therapy for COVID-19 itself. For many, these are life-saving treatments that they cannot go without. These therapies are then used to treat people with immune deficiencies and rare blood disorders, like Von Willebrand disease and hemophilia. Blood plasma is used to make plasma therapies-or plasma protein therapies-including immune globulin (or Ig), albumin, C-1 inhibitor, and clotting factor, among others. This is a threat to the thousands of patients not just in the United States, but also to tens of thousands of patients around the world who are dependent on American plasma. Texas and Florida, the two states with the most plasma centers, are once again seeing an uptick in coronavirus cases, threatening to further depress donations at those states' plasma centers. Plasma donations have fallen 15–20 percent across the United States. So are blood plasma donations, which may actually prove to be the bigger problem in the long run. You may have already heard that blood donations are down significantly because of the coronavirus pandemic. This constant near-crisis is a result of most foreign countries' refusal to pay people for plasma used to manufacture therapies-the consequence of foolish adherence to decades-old, outmoded guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO). plasma supply away from global catastrophe. Plasma collected in the United States is the source material for more than 70 percent of the global supply humanity is nearly always one disruption in the U.S. Life-saving plasma therapies are essential for many patients, but every year we flirt with a shortage. ![]()
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