Cost effectiveness of Iran national plasma contract fractionation program

Abdol Majid Cheraghali

doi:10.1186/2008-2231-20-63

Abstract

Plasma derived medicines (PDM) including immunoglobulins, clotting factors and albumin are life saving medicines which due to their high costs are inaccessible for many patients living in developing countries. By contrary substantial volume of plasma as raw materials for production of these medicines are discarded worldwide. Good quality recovered plasma, as a result of separation of donated blood into its components, could be used for production of PDM. In 2011 Iranian donors donated about 2 million units of blood. A shift from administration of whole blood to components therapy has resulted in the generation of over 250,000 liters of surplus of recovered plasma. This created a good opportunity for Iran’s health care system to use this plasma for production of PDM. Therefore Iran national transfusion service has started a contract fractionation program for converting recovered plasma into PDM. This program not only provided essential PDM for Iran pharmaceutical market but also has created a direct saving of about 8.5 million Euros in 2011 for national health sector. In addition this program has drastically contributed to improvement of overall quality of working procedures and services provided by Iran national blood transfusion organization.

Highlights

Blood as a very precious human resource has been used for direct transfusion for centuries it has recently become increasingly important to separate the manufacturing aspect of blood as a source of pharmaceutical “raw material”
The process of separating blood into its components will result to plasma as a rich source of human proteins for further manufacturing of plasma derived medicines (PDM)
A shift from administration of whole blood to component therapy has resulted in the generation of surplus of recovered plasma from donated blood. This created a good opportunity for Iran's health care system to use this plasma for production of PDM

Summary

Background

Blood as a very precious human resource has been used for direct transfusion for centuries it has recently become increasingly important to separate the manufacturing aspect of blood as a source of pharmaceutical “raw material”. A shift from administration of whole blood to component therapy has resulted in the generation of surplus of recovered plasma from donated blood This created a good opportunity for Iran's health care system to use this plasma for production of PDM. Fact, the presence of the products produced from contract fractionation in the market, through improving bargaining power of the national authorities on commercial products, has contributed greatly to maintain a downward pressure on the price of the commercially available PDM in Iran’s market [12]

Discussion

Findings

Conclusion

Robert P