Why are Americans supplying two-thirds
of the world's blood plasma?
They need the cash.
In 2019 alone, plasma companies paid
about $2.7 billion for Americans' donations.
I feel like I'm helping somebody and they're helping me out.
I'm glad that it does help people,
but I only found out about it because it pays you money,
and I only find myself doing it when I need money.
While donors make about $50 per donation,
a liter of plasma is worth over $200 on the open market.
So why is plasma so expensive?
When Liz Savage and her husband
first started donating plasma in college,
the earnings doubled their monthly income.
You know, $400 goes a long way
when you're a broke student.
Now she uses the money to help out
with expenses like buying her kids new school clothes.
She visits the center near Baltimore, Maryland,
twice a week.
I've tried DoorDash.
I've tried, you know, little things here and there,
but this is consistent.
Like, this is — there is a need for it.
Plasma makes up more than half of blood volume.
Hospitals use it in transfusions to treat burns,
liver failure, and more recently, COVID-19.
But plasma is also used to create drugs
that are some of the most expensive a patient can buy.
To make medicine, companies break down plasma
into its protein components, such as antibodies.
But plasma is over 90% water.
So removing enough proteins to treat just one patient
for a year takes between 130 and 1,300 donations.
That's led to a boom in private donation centers
where donors are paid an average of $35 to $65 a visit.
That means if you donate the maximum of 104 times a year,
you can earn more than $6,000.
Donating plasma takes nine times longer
than a typical blood donation,
but it brings in three times more plasma
than just removing plasma from a blood donation.
And because the human body replenishes plasma
within 48 hours, Americans are allowed to give
up to twice a week.
That's compared to eight weeks between each blood donation.
Regular donors can make extra cash through referral bonuses,
holiday giveaways, and rewards programs.
This is the gold, silver, platinum.
Past 35 days, four donations.
You can redeem the points.
Keep you coming back.
That's marketing right there.
On social media, I've already been getting ads saying,
"Be a founding member of the center.
You can get $700 a month."
Analidis Ochoa lives near a new plasma center
in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
She's a social science researcher
who's tracking the rise in for-profit plasma centers.
Since the Great Recession, the amount of plasma donations
has roughly tripled to 2019 levels.
There are over 900 private plasma centers
across the US, mostly owned by three companies
that control two-thirds of the global plasma industry.
We compensate donors for their time
and their commitment to the program.
Their money is placed on a debit card.
They can get gas. They can go grocery shopping.
So it's very convenient.
Researchers like Ochoa
say these centers are often concentrated
in states with lower minimum wages
and cities with more people
living under the poverty line.
These areas are being targeted because
these are the areas where people
who are most in need of income live.
One study of plasma donors in Cleveland
found that more than half were unemployed.
57% said at least a third of their income that month
was coming from donating plasma.
I'm the only one working.
So with two kids, you've got to make up the money somehow.
Regular donors told Insider
they spend their money on gas, rent, phone bills,
food, and student loans.
In the 90 minutes it takes to donate,
they can make five times the federal minimum wage.
I kind of figure it into my budget now.
The need for it is only growing.
Each year, global demand for plasma-based drugs
is rising 6% to 8%.
Analysts say the market for them
could near $50 billion by 2027.
That's double what the world spends on bath soap each year.
Running a plasma center isn't cheap.
A single plasma extraction machine costs
an average of $50,000,
so equipment alone can cost $4 million per center.
Plasma companies spend over half of their operating expenses
on just the collection and manufacturing
of the plasma itself.
That huge investment drives up the cost of the drugs.
It's about $4,000 to $5,000 out of pocket.
And I actually, there have been times
where I have had to, like, I've taken out loans.
Christina Brown was diagnosed
with primary immunodeficiency as a college student.
She says that year she was in and out of the hospital
with 15 urinary tract infections, five bouts of bronchitis,
and two cases of pneumonia.
Now every week, Christina self-administers 100 milliliters
of a plasma-derived drug into the layer of tissue
on her abdomen.
That's a lot of liquid.
A patient with diabetes usually injects
less than one milliliter of insulin at a time.
I'm able to have a life and to be alive.
These drugs are therapies, not cures.
So people like Christina rely on them
for the rest of their lives.
And they can cost over $200,000 a year.
The pandemic could make these already high prices
rise even further.
Global plasma collections were down 15% in 2020
because of social distancing, cleaning requirements,
and fewer donors visiting centers.
I'm kind of starting to stock up on doses now.
I'm getting refills the day that I can get a refill.
And patients will feel the impacts
of that in the next seven to 12 months,
the time it takes for plasma to go from a donor
to the drugstore shelf.
It's honestly, it's pretty terrifying.
This is all while plasma is in high demand,
as antibody transfusions show promising results
in treating COVID-19.
And private companies are collecting plasma
from COVID patients to develop drugs.
There is no country in the world that is self-sufficient
in plasma for plasma therapies unless it pays donors.
Compensating donors has proven
to increase supply.
In the Czech Republic, paid donations were legalized
in 2008, and donations increased sevenfold in three years.
In Europe, the countries that bring in
the most plasma per capita are the ones that pay.
Even in places like Italy,
where donors get a paid day off work,
supply doesn't meet demand.
Whereas Germany, which allows paid donation,
collects even more plasma than it needs.
America has more lenient policies than other countries,
including those that pay for plasma.
The only other place that lets donors give
as frequently is Canada, where paid donations
are only legal in certain provinces.
That's why the US system is so large, efficient,
and lucrative, and why some countries decide
it's just cheaper to import plasma from America.
But there isn't much research on the health effects
of donating plasma 104 times a year, the US legal limit.
Your veins start to hurt after so long.
You've got to switch arms back and forth.
The more often people donate plasma,
the lower their protein levels are.
So frequent visits mean each donation
brings in less and less of the components
needed to make drugs.
Our concern is that people who are vulnerable
are giving their plasma to make ends meet.
And we don't actually know
what the long-term repercussions of this is.