What is ABRA? ABOUT ABRA Established in 1972, ABRA is a non-profit trade association established to represent the interests of businesses engaged in the collection, manufacturing or distribution of certain biological products including, primarily, plasma for further manufacturing. Member corporations provide approximately 80% of the commercially acquired plasma for use in a variety of diagnostic and therapeutic plasma products. The members of ABRA produce and distribute more than half of the world's plasma requirements. The Association's Corporate membership ranges from small soleproprietor corporations to very large multinational corporations, some of whom can be found listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The membership consists mostly of United States firms with approximately 10% of its members manufacturing and distributing plasma and plasma products in Europe and Japan. The American Blood Resources Association's programs and activities are directed by an active-volunteer Board of Directors consisting of twelve medical and business leaders from the plasma and plasma products community. To establish and maintain a representative and centralized agency to consider and act upon matters affecting the activities of its members. To unitedly and cooperatively strive to establish a more harmonious understanding and relationship among the members of this association and those in other industries and institutions related to and serviced by the proprietary blood industry; to foster reasonable and just regulation by the city, state or other governmental agencies authorized to supervise the proprietary blood industry and to mutually resolve all problems affecting our individual and general welfare in the industry. To cooperate for the improvement of all conditions related to such activities and to encourage the correction of abuses relative thereto. To exercise any, all and every power for which a non-profit membership corporation organized under the laws of the State of Tennessee may be authorized to exercise. To inaugurate beneficial projects on behalf of the proprietary blood industry where such projects shall contribute to the best interests of the blood industry and the American public. WHO IS ELIGIBLE? The Association has two classes of membership. GENERAL MEMBERSHIP Any firm or entity which is engaged tor profit in the business of collecting. manufacturing, processing or distributing blood and blood derivatives shall be elig ble for General Membership. ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP Any firm or entity which is engaged in the business of providing products or services to firms or entities which are eligible to be General Members or tax exempt and engaged in a business which would otherwise entitle it to be a General Member shall be eligible for Associate Membership. The Board of Directors may impose such additional criteria for membership as it deems appropriate, including, but not limited to, a requirement that members meet specified ethical and professional standards of conduct. MEETINGS understanding PLASMA ABRA Public Education Program Who Collects Plasma? In the United States alone, there are over 300 plasma collection facilities recruiting and collecting plasma from paid donors, (Chart 1). These facilities are Federal Food and Drug Administration approved and regularly inspected to insure that donor safety and product quality standards are maintained. Approximately 100 corporations, ranging from large multi-national corporations to sole-proprietorships (employing over 6,000 doctors, nurses, technicians and administrative personnel), operate these facilities, (Chart 2). These plasma collections facilities provide over 60 percent of the world's plasma requirements. While the United States provides a majority of the plasma needed to solve world medical needs, there are facilities throughout the international community which supply the balance. Each year, these plasma facilities in the United States collect more than 10 million plasma collection procedures (plasmapheresis) to produce 6.0 million liters of Source Plasma, (Chart 3). Source Plasma is the FDA title for plasma collected by plasmapheresis and intended for further manufacturing into over 100 different reagents and injectable products used by the health Plasma is also obtained from volunteer- plasma is limited for use in the production of Albumin and represents about 25 percent of the Albumin plasma supply. About onethird of so-called Recovered Plasma is frozen and, therefore, suitable for the production of Antihemophilic Factor (AHF), used in the treatment of hemophilia (a bleeding disorder), and represents 10 to 15 percent of the American supply of AHF product. ABRA Public Education Program CHART 2-As of April 1984, the FDA reported 336 licensed Source Plasma facilities. These locations are reported by category of type of ownership. "Fractionator owned" includes centers owned by four major United States protein product manufacturers. "Multi-operator" represents less than 30 corporations who own 2 to 20 locations which provide Source Plasma both to the four major United States fractionators as well as diagnostic and fractionation companies worldwide. "Single-operator"" are corporations who own only one location. These companies frequently CHART 3-Source Plasma is used for "fractionation use" for the production of: Albumin, used for the treatment of shock and burns; immunoglobulin, used for immunication against tetanus, pertussis, and smallpox; and Rh (D), used to prevent sensitization at birth to the Rh factor. Source Plasma is also used for coagulation products such as antihemophilic factor, used in the treatment of hemophilia; "Diagnostic Products," used for production of blood grouping and typing sera to prepare blood for transfusion; and hematology and chemistry control reagents to quality control hospital and medical laboratory test procedures. Source Plasma is exported primarily to Europe and Japan for the same mix of products previously described. ABRA Public Education Program The free world used an estimated 9.65 million liters of plasma in 1983, (Chart 1). The United States Source Plasma industry provided over 60 percent, or 6.0 million liters, of that requirement. Plasma is needed as raw material in the production of over 100 diagnostic and therapeutic products. The United States is the major producer of therapeutic biological products and is estimated to produce over 70 percent of the world's requirements for these products. Significant amounts of the Sources: Plasma Forum 1979 through 1983 search Bureau Inc. Estimate of Total Source/ Recovered Plasma Production = 9,650,000 L CHART 1. Estimates of 1983 Source/Recovered Plasma Production World-Wide Summer 1984 PLASMA QUARTERLY 37 world's reagents, including blood grouping and typing sera, are manufactured in the United States as well. Fractionation facilities are operated by both private enterprise (Chart 2), governments, and non-profit corporations such as the Red Cross. According to The Marketing Research Bureau Inc., there are 77 protein fractionation firms world-wide (Chart 3). These firms have a combined capacity to fractionate 12.5 million liters (Chart 4). The utilization of that capacity varies markedly from fractionator location to fractionator location. In general, the private sector makes better use of its capacity. Facilities in the United States are reported to utilize 85 to 90 percent of their capacity. ABRA CHART 3. Number of Fractionation Facilities and Utilization Rates |