First NHS patients now receiving medicine created from Buckinghamshire blood donors

The medicine is made from the blood plasma of blood donors.

NHS patients around the country are now receiving a lifesaving medicine made from the plasma of blood donors in Buckinghamshire.

This historic milestone marks the first time in a quarter of a century plasma is being used to make life-saving medicines for NHS patients, reducing reliance on imports.

These lifesaving medicines can only be made from human blood. Plasma makes up 55 per cent of our blood and contains antibodies which strengthen or stabilise the immune system.

The antibodies are separated out and made into medicines which treat people with life limiting illnesses such as immune deficiencies.

In Buckinghamshire, hundreds of people receive the most important medicine, immunoglobulin, each year.

Plasma has been separated out from blood donations in Buckinghamshire and across England over the past two years, stored up, and then made into the medicine through a weeks long manufacturing process. The first patients are now receiving the medicines.

Over the past two years, blood donors in Buckinghamshire have supplied 6,000 litres of plasma in total, enough to make about 3,000 bottles of immunoglobulin a year, which is enough to save or improve around 80 lives a year.

In England, around 17,000 people rely on immunoglobulin to save or improve their lives each year. Thousands of patients also rely on albumin – another plasma medicine – which is used in childbirth, trauma, and to treat liver conditions.

Plasma separated from red blood cells

The news is important because there is a global shortage of plasma medicines. The NHS has previously relied solely on imported plasma medicines as a lasting legacy of Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease.  The new supply of UK plasma medicines will bolster supplies to the NHS. It will reduce reliance on imports, which can be hit by reductions in supply and prices spikes.

There are two ways that you can give plasma. Every time you give blood in Buckinghamshire, your plasma may be used too. Or you can donate plasma at three specialist sites in Birmingham, London and Reading.  A recovered plasma donation gives us around 270 millilitres of plasma, whereas a plasma donation can give us between 560 millilitres and 700 millilitres.

Daniel Cooper, NHSBT Assistant Director for Blood Donation Operations, said: “Thanks to our amazing blood and plasma donors in Buckinghamshire and across England, for the first time in a quarter of a century, patients are now receiving plasma medicines made from donations taken in England. 

“We need more blood donors to help make more of these medicines and build UK self-sufficiency.  Your donation is now helping save lives in new ways.”

Dr Susan Walsh, the Chief Executive Officer of Immunodeficiency UK, said: “This is a historic moment – patients from Buckinghamshire can now get lifesaving and life-improving immunoglobulin medicine made from the plasma of UK blood and plasma donors.

“Immunoglobulins recognise dangerous micro-organisms and help the immune cells to neutralise them. It’s a vital treatment for people with immune disorders.

“We urge people in Buckinghamshire to try blood donation. Your red blood cells will be used as normal. But now the blood plasma can also help vulnerable people with immune disorders.”

Go to www.blood.co.uk to become a donor. (external site)