Why So Many Companies Want U.S. Blood

In America, blood means big business. America’s blood makes up 2.69% of U.S. exports, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Since there is no substitute for human blood, demand can be hard to meet. Over the pandemic, the Red Cross announced its first ever national blood shortage crisis. The shortage prompted the FDA’s 12-month blood donation deferral for men who have sex with men to be shortened to three months time. Advocates want the FDA to follow the science and do away with the ban altogether, following countries like Italy and Spain which have done the same. But outside of the clinic, blood plasma becomes a product.

Grifols, CSL Plasma, Takada’s Biolife and Octapharma are huge players in the plasma collection space and donors are compensated for their donation. Increasingly, plasma donations are becoming an economic coping mechanism for low income communities. Watch the video about to learn more about how the weird economy of blood works, why the U.S. is such a major player and what makes plasma so valuable.

“There are still sporadic shortages,” Dr. Claudia Cohn, chief medical officer of the Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies, told CNBC.

An early pandemic shortage prompted the FDA to loosen its restriction, which stems from the 1980s AIDS crisis, on accepting blood donations from men who have sex with men. Advocates want the FDA to follow the science and do away with the ban altogether, as have countries such as Italy and Spain.

“There is still government policy that stigmatizes gay and bisexual and other men who have sex with men and carries forward this false notion that there is something inherently diseased about being gay,” Jason Cianciotto, vice president of communications and public policy at Gay Men’s Health Crisis, told CNBC.

A 2014 report found that allowing this community equal access to donating blood could increase the blood supply by 2% to 4% every year.

Grifols, CSL Plasma, Takeda’s Biolife and Octapharma are huge players in the blood collection space, particularly plasma, and donors are compensated.

“Plasma donation [centers] are advertising $900 for your first month giving plasma,” Analidis Ochoa, a doctoral candidate studying social work and sociology at the University of Michigan, told CNBC. “Then it goes down. Usually people can make $30 to $50 each time they go.”

In most countries, blood donation for compensation is banned, but not in the United States. So, the U.S. supplies 70% of the world’s plasma, according to the Niskanen Center.

“What myself and colleagues have worked on is mapping out the location of plasma centers and seeing if there’s a correlation between the address of the center and the poverty level of the area. And what we have found is that they are, in fact, overrepresented in high-poverty areas,” Ochoa said.

She said that plasma donation for compensation is becoming an economic coping mechanism.

“The fact that I got rewarded for donating has kept me donating, because I couldn’t make it otherwise. I couldn’t buy gas. I couldn’t pay my car insurance,” Teresa Clark, a plasma donor, told CNBC. “I can make $650 to $700 a month ... and that helps a lot when you’re on a fixed income.”

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Why So Many Companies Want U.S. Blood

[johnpinion]

I think the donor should get at least 50% of what the end-consumer (patient) BILLING COST is. Pay me $50, charge $900? Hard pass.

[lindsayann]

They want you to donate your blood and then charge you in the hospital for the blood 👀

[nokiot]

It’s utterly depressing to hear someone say they can’t afford to exist without selling her blood.

[michaelntiababio]

In Ghana, West Africa, when you donate blood, you get a beverage and Milk and a certificate. You keep the certificate and when you or your immediate family ever need blood in a hospital, you pay for it at about 50% discount due to the certificate. Also, according to them, priority will be given to you when there's shortage of supply.

[TheRubinator]

I was a phlebotomist at a plasma center for a little over a year, I was also trained to fix the machines when they would break down, which was basically everyday since the machines were from the 1980s, well long story short I stopped working there because I found out each bottle of plasma was being sold by the plasma center for about $5, 000-$8, 000 while I was getting paid only a few dollars above minimum wage and my benifits so so bad i may as well of not had any, all this even though im handling a biohazard at work and they were never paying donors more than $80 a donation. That only happened if they donated 2x a week every week for the month AND there were special deals going on. The average payout for a donation was about $30-$45. So when I found out how much of a profit was being made and how little the workers and the donors were making, I left. The red cross is just as bad if not worse because they also don't pay very well and they don't even pay their donors anything but sell the blood bags to hospitals for extremely high prices
The whole industry revolves around money and it should revolve around helping people

[sg]

I'm O negative, the universal donor. I used to try to donate blood regularly at a local nonprofit, but half the time the center would screw up the stick and I'd end up with giant bruises and they wouldn't actually get a full donation (meaning it's all wasted). But the bigger problem I had was that they literally started hounding me on the phone to donate blood. I was getting multiple calls a day EVERY DAY. All so they could profit by SELLING my blood to the highest bidder. Pass.

[anbuhxrris]

I donated blood dozens of times in Afghanistan when I was deployed. I tried to donate plasma at a grifols location and when they hooked me up to the machine, I passed out. They told me it was mental which I argued with because I have donated blood many times. I went and did a test and turns out I’m allergic to the anticoagulant. They put anticoagulant into the blood they pump back into you after they take the plasma. It makes some people sick.

[kevinwest]

So let me see:
1. I give blood.
2. Companies then take that blood and break it down for big bucks.
3. Hospitals and other companies take the products made from my blood then make even bigger bucks.
4. Meanwhile all I get is a cookie...

Yeah no. Cut me in on the big money and I will give blood all day... or until I pass out.

[BluetheRaccoon]

Why do they keep calling is "donating blood"? When you donate for a fee, that's called selling. People in America are so poor, many of us are resorting on selling one of the few things some of us have left: our health. CSL is lying about diversity of people "donating"

[Adohleas]

Let this sink in to you, about 70% of the worlds Plasma comes from the U.S.

[om-njhw]

It's absurd to expect people to donate their blood when hospitals and health companies are totally for profit. Are they donating their services to the community? No they are not no $ no help etc, and in these rough times maybe the solution is to give $ for blood, would help some people out.

[KingOfTheLab]

Loudly: We need to get more people to donate blood.
Softly: So WE can make more money. (shhh)

[kellharris]

The dehydration and loss of plasma can cause some people to have dangerous mood drops. It can exacerbate depression. People aren't aware of it. Donating is a good thing but you need to be mindful. You should increase your protein, iron and water intake to make up for the loss.

[celieboo]

I am O+. I proudly donated whole blood to Lifeshare blood centers in Shreveport for years. I was one of those people with the 20 gallon donor coffee cup, etc.
I stopped donating when I found out that I had a critically low ferritin level since I donated blood and had EXTREMELY heavy periods.

[PRmoustache]

I remember donating plasma during the Reagan administration. I was really poor and I needed food stamps. The social worker wanted a receipt for the donated plasma, so that the funds could count against the food stamp allotment. If I did not bring in the receipts, the application would be denied. I went to the plasma center to ask for receipts of the cash payments to me. They said that they did not do this as it was not policy to give donaters receipts. At the time the disbursements were $10 to $12 per visit. God, that time sucked.

[npcwill]

I have been paying attention to this for a while ! I was wondering when people were going to realize we were short on blood but somehow it was a 3 billion dollar export ! Every time I see a politician on twitter promoting a blood drive I instantly think who is no one limiting exports ?

[davidebacchi]

Those are not ‘donors’ just ‘sellers’. If someone does something and recive money as ‘compensation’ that isn’t a donation, that’s a sale.

[grer]

I used to work in manufacturing the blood products. Kind of amazing how much product was processed during each shift while paying us less than they made off one donation. They should offer a better incentive at least to keep donations coming, at least it might help cover everyone's healthcare premiums 🙃

[mireya]

As someone who regularly receives therapy that derives from plasma donations. I wholeheartedly believe that these companies need to pay their donors more. These pharmaceutical companies make from these donation’s. Just one of my I.V. treatments is close to 5k. That is what these pharmaceutical company’s are charging!

[herbs]

In my state, If we donate 2 packets of blood we get a donor card that entitles me to 2 packets of blood when I need it from hospital stock for FREE. Hence you can keep your donor card and keep collecting blood when u may need it in the future. It's much more effective.

2 bags of blood is just an example. You can donate as many as you want and keep updating your donor card.
The best part is that when any strangers friends or family need blood you can also use your card to take blood from the blood bank for free.