Collection of Plasma for Fractionation

UK legislation has been updated to allow for the use of UK plasma for fractionation and NHSBT wishes to commence a tender process for a plasmapheresis solution (machines, consumables, maintenance etc) in order to collect UK plasma for the manufacture of immunoglobulins. It is anticipated that collections, will ramp-up to c.200k litres of plasma per annum.The tender will be for NHSBT and collaboration with other UK and Ireland blood services is being considered. In the first instance the NHSBT specification used for convalescent plasma collections (SPN1478) can be used for reference, however, this is subject to change as a specification specific for fractionation is being developed.