Life-saving plasma donors must now go to Seattle
Published 9:00 pm Monday, January 24, 2005
Plasma collected at the Grifols Biomat USA Plasma Center in downtown Everett helped patients with hepatitis, tetanus and other conditions.
The clear, liquid portion of the blood, plasma consists of water, salts, enzymes, antibodies and other proteins. It is the base for a range of medicines and its proteins help to clot blood and fight disease.
Plasma-based drugs are particularly useful to hemophiliacs, burn victims and patients with weak immune systems. Plasma collected here was specifically designated for treatments of hepatitis and tetanus, said Eric Segal, a spokesman for Grifols USA.
“It truly is a life-saving product,” he said.
The Everett donation center was one of only a handful of company sites collecting antibodies used to treat Hepatitis B, he said.
“That is a product in short supply industry-wide,” Segal said. “This doesn’t help.”
Segal added that plasma collected at the Everett facility and Grifols’ 47 other plasma collection sites around the nation is shipped internationally. Grifols, a large biomedical company based in Barcelona, Spain, also has manufacturing facilities in Los Angeles.
The 25 employees at the Everett donation center will likely continue working at the company’s other sites in Washington, including one in north Seattle.
A sign at the Everett site directed plasma donors to the north Seattle center Monday.
It’s located at 7726 15th Ave. NW. For more information about donating plasma there, call 206-782-6675.
