First NHS patients receiving life-saving medicine from Suffolk plasma donations

NHS patients up and down the country are now receiving life-saving medicine made from the blood plasma of Suffolk donors.

Medicines such as immunoglobulin are helping transform lives in what is the first time these treatments have been used for medicines in a quarter of a century.

The NHS has been collecting plasma from donors for the past three years, which is turned into medicine through a weeks-long manufacturing process.

Plasma, which makes up about 55 per cent of blood, can help strengthen the immune system and is used to treat immune deficiencies.

Daniel Cooper, assistant director for blood donation operations at NHS Blood and Transplant, said this historic milestone would not have been possible without donors.

He added: “We need more blood donors to help make more of these medicines and build UK self-sufficiency. Your donation is now helping save lives in new ways.”

Anyone wishing to donate should visit blood.co.uk.”

In the East of England alone, about 14,000 people are given immunoglobulin per year, the NHS said.

This includes 157 at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust and hundreds more in Norfolk.

Over the past three years donors have provided about 4,400 litres of plasma, equivalent to 2,000 bottles of immunoglobulin.

Across England about 17,000 rely on immunoglobulin, with thousands using albumin, another drug made from plasma, used for liver conditions, childbirth and trauma.

The NHS has said there is a global shortage of plasma, with the body previously relying on imports which came as a result of the ‘lasting legacy’ of Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, a fatal brain condition.

Each blood donation could result in between 560 millilitres and 700 millilitres of plasma.

Dr Susan Walsh, chief executive Officer of Immunodeficiency UK, explained how immunoglobulins work.

She said: “Immunoglobulins recognise dangerous micro-organisms and help the immune cells to neutralise them. It’s a vital treatment for people with immune disorders.

“We urge people in Suffolk to try blood donation.

“Your red blood cells will be used as normal. But now the blood plasma can also help vulnerable people with immune disorders.”