Even for those with other means of income, plasma donations are a popular way to make cash quick. While some expressed a desire to help others as a motivating factor, many confessed that compensation was their primary influence. Regular donors told Insider they spend their plasma money on gas, rent, phone bills, food, and student loans. "These are the areas where people who are most in need of income live," she said.Īccording to CSL Plasma, the company selects new locations "based on population density, availability of property, and local zoning laws." BioLife said it "looks for areas with a large population where it doesn't have a presence, real estate availability, and the amount of skilled staff nearby." Grifols declined to comment. Researchers like Ochoa have found that plasma centers tend to be concentrated in states with lower minimum wages and cities with more people living under the poverty line. A study from the Center for Health Care Research and Policy found that 57% of donors at one Cleveland center reported at least a third of their income that month would come from donating plasma. "I've tried DoorDash, I've tried, you know, little things here and there, but this is consistent. Savage has used plasma money to supplement her income throughout her life - as a college student in Idaho, a young adult in Tennessee, and now, as a mother in Maryland - to pay for family expenses like her children's new school clothes. "But I only found out about it because it pays you money, and I only find myself doing it when I need money." "I could pretend that I do it because it helps people and I'm glad that it does help people," she said. Liz Savage visits a CSL Plasma center in Glen Burnie, Maryland, twice a week. Stephen Craib, 42, makes his 15th plasma donation to the NHS Blood and Transplant Convalescent Plasma Programme in London. "There is a problem when you feel that there's no other option." Plasma centers attract donors in need of money. "There's nothing wrong with giving plasma," said researcher Analidis Ochoa. "The bottom line is if the US didn't compensate donors, there would not be enough plasma and lives would be lost globally," the president of the Immune Deficiency Foundation wrote in a February 2019 statement.īut the burden is falling on vulnerable donors, many of whom rely on plasma compensation as a source of income. Treating just one patient with plasma therapies for a year takes between 130 and 1,300 donations. With no synthetic substitute for plasma, drug manufacturers rely on a steady stream of human donors to make up their supply. Meanwhile, plasma has been in high demand, as antibody transfusions show promising results in treating COVID-19 and private companies use plasma from COVID patients to develop potential drugs. That gap only worsened in 2020, as a mix of social distancing, cleaning requirements, and donor reluctance caused global donations to drop 15%, according to the Marketing Research Bureau. According to analysts at Fortune Business Insights, two-thirds of these centers are owned by one of three companies: CSL Plasma, Grifols, and BioLife.Įven before the pandemic hit, global demand for plasma far outpaced supply. That's led to a boom in private, for-profit plasma centers across the US, with the number of centers tripling over the past 15 years. Unlike those going toward transfusions, plasma donations destined for medication do not need to be labeled as voluntary or paid.
Biopharmaceutical companies also use it to manufacture life-saving drugs. Hospitals use it in transfusions to treat burns and liver failure, relying on unpaid donors. Plasma is the yellowish liquid that makes up more than half of blood volume. The industry is worth over $24 billion today, according to the Marketing Research Bureau, and that number could nearly double by 2027, as global demand for plasma-derived medicine rises by 6% to 8% each year. In the 90 minutes it takes to donate, they make five times the federal minimum wage.Īmericans supply two-thirds of the world's blood plasma.
It often indicates a user profile.įor thousands of Americans, donating plasma is a lifeline. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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