Quality Plasma

Safe products start with safe plasma.

  

The Octapharma Quality Plasma System comprises:

  • Carefully selected donor centres
    Plasma suppliers are selected with utmost care. Octapharma procures about 50% of its plasma from company-owned Plasma Donation Centres in Germany, the Czech Republic and the USA.

    All plasma suppliers are licensed by national Health Authorities, and operate in compliance with current EU and/or FDA GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) requirements.
     
  • Selection of healthy donors
    All donors are interviewed with regard to their medical and lifestyle history, and are only accepted for donation if they are healthy and free of risks for blood-borne diseases.

    Each donation is screened for absence of HIV, HBV, and HCV using state-of-the-art test methods.
     
  • High-quality plasma
    Plasma is prepared from whole blood donations or is directly obtained by automated plasmapheresis. It is free from detectable viruses, and contains specified levels of protective antibodies, coagulation factors and other important proteins.

    Plasma is rapidly frozen to preserve unstable proteins. It is maintained at -20°C or below during all storage and transport in a well controlled ‘cold chain’ system. Only plasma that meets all specified quality and safety criteria is released for production processes at Octapharma plants.
     
  • Small plasma batches
    For both quality and viral safety reasons, Octapharma works with small plasma batches that are pooled by country of origin. All plasma batches are again tested for the absence of viral markers.

    The ability to work with small plasma batches makes Octapharma an ideal partner for small- and medium-sized toll fractionation projects. Current partners include:
    • Finnish Red Cross (production of octaplas® and fractionation products from Finnish plasma)
    • Slovenian Blood Transfusion Service (fractionation products from Slovenian plasma)