If They're Turning Blood Products Into A Commodity Should They Continue To Expect To Get Their Raw Material For Nothing?

[sandyRoe]

I'm assuming that they use donated blood.

http://news.uk.msn.com/uk/uk-blood-company-sold-to-us-firm-1

[jakep]

Hospitals have paid the transfusion service for blood and blood products for years.

[rockyracoon]

What's in it for them, how will the make money? Do we give our blood/plasma for them to sell back to hospitals?

[LazyGun]

They no longer use plasma collected from british donors to make the various plasma =derived products. Have not done for some while now, because of the risk of vCJD.

That is why BPL, or rather its holding company, bought a chain of US blood and plasma collection centres across the US. All donors in the US are paid for their donation.

http://www.bpl.co.uk/about-plasma/

So whilst I think it a huge error to sell to Bain Equity, I do not have a particular objection to the company be privatised. Ever since parts of the NHS was marketised, BPL have had an odd commercial role to play.

Second.
jakep commented on hospitals paying the blood transfusion service, or NHSBT, for blood and blood products for years. This is true - but again it came about as a consequence of the internal market created within the NHS. Rather than funds being disbursed to the NHSBT to collect and process blood products, each hospital was given a blood products budget instead, and units of blood were assigned a cost.

Its just another form of moving money around within the NHS. No commercial gain is involved. Currently, I think a unit of blood is costed at around £80 - there or thereabouts....

[rockyracoon]

LG, how do Bain make any money from this if it's just a case of moving around the NHS?

[LazyGun]

Because there are only a few accredited plasma fractionaters around the globe, and some highly specific and very much needed plasma components are derived from the processing - products that are not likely to be replaced by cheap synthetic alternatives any time soon.

This is a global market we are talking about here.

So the holding company, a UK government quango which controls BPL, the UK based fractionator, and the US chain of blood donation centres, has a valuable asset - access to large quantities of plasma from the US market, and an internationally renowned UK fractionater - and a global market to access.
So plasma products, like coagulation factors, or Anti-D immunoglobulin, or IVIg products, or Albumin solutions, are all expensive products with a healthy profit margin.

That market has grown bigger just recently. Several national regulatory bodies have banned the use of Hydroxy-Ethyl Starch (HES), a cheap synthetic plasma expander, often used in the treatment of large volume bleeding. So Albumin solution - derived from plasma - is likely to see increased sales.

This operation should not be confused or conflated with the collection of voluntary donations of pints of blood from altruistic donors in the UK via the NHSBT. That is collected and processed by a completely different NHS organisation, whose products are exclusively for the UK healthcare market.

[rockyracoon]

LG, thanks for taking the time to reply, I don't think too much whooshed over my head ;)

The crux of the matter being, donors needn't worry about their bodily fluids being flogged off to a big American concern for profit.

[LazyGun]

@ Rocky - exactly. Elegantly summarised ;)

[rockyracoon]

Lol :-)

[sandyRoe]

Good answers from LazyGun but Rockyracoons pithy reassurance that my life-blood isn't going to fatter the wallet of some bloated American blood sucking capitalist get the best answer award :-)

[rockyracoon]

Why thank you sandy.