Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to provide additional funding for domestic plasma collection; and if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of such funding on supply chains, in the context of the UK’s reliance on US plasma imports.

The Department, NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), and NHS England are working in partnership to develop a more sufficient and resilient supply of plasma, reducing the need for reliance on imports of plasma derived medicines.

A new end-to-end supply chain has been built, enabling the first National Health Service patients to receive life-saving plasma treatments made from the blood of United Kingdom donors in March, and increasing self-sufficiency for plasma derived medicines, specifically for immunoglobulins, from 0% to 25% self-sufficiency, and for albumin, from 0% to 80% self-sufficiency.

NHSBT has incorporated plasma collection into its business model, enabling growth in domestic plasma collection. This includes the use of modern automated collection technologies, used to enhance efficiency and consistency in the donation process. NHSBT is currently exploring future locations to expand its collection footprint and develop more donor centres.

Plasma collection is benefitting from the Department’s investment in NHSBT’s work to increase blood collection capacity and resilience, as plasma is collected from whole blood donations as well as dedicated plasma donation.