Rule change allows regular blood donations to make life saving plasma medicines

Blood Donors across the North West now have the opportunity to donate more blood to create life-saving plasma medicine.

The first donations in England will be taken today at Manchester Norfolk Blood Donor Centre and will be rolled out across England over the coming months.

Around 250,000 liters of plasma from around one million blood donations each year will be used to make a medicine that treats rare immune diseases.

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) said the plasma will bolster supplies of the medicine - known as immunoglobulin - which it said is facing supply pressures made worse by Covid-19.

Until now the UK had been relying solely on imports of immunoglobulin medicine, which are received by around 17,000 people every year.

According to the NHSBT Many recipients are clinically vulnerable people who have been shielding during the coronavirus pandemic.

Minister for innovation Lord Bethell described it as a "historic day for the future of blood donations in the UK".

While most of a person's blood is made up of plasma - the fluid which carries the red blood cells, antibodies, and other components around the body - generally it is only the red blood cells that are used in a normal blood transfusion.

Most of the leftover plasma - which can save lives because it contains antibodies that fight infections - was not used for patient treatment and none could be used for this immunoglobulin medicine until now.

The change follows the Government lifting a ban in February which was imposed on UK donors in 1998 amid concerns about the spread of a human variant of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), known as mad cow disease.

Red blood cells will continue to be used as normal so there will be no impact on blood supply, NHSBT said.

Gerry Gogarty, the lead for plasma for medicines at the organisation, said: "Your blood is mostly made up of plasma and it contains the antibodies which fight infections. Those antibodies can save the lives of people with faulty immune systems.

"This is a huge new step forward for the wider NHS and the thousands of people who rely on immunoglobulins."