In many developed countries, the Red Cross plays a strategic role in blood collection and they are organized in such a way that they achieve maximum use of the vital liquid to fractionate it and generate blood products.
Blood derivatives today, thanks to the advancement of science and the resources provided by technology, represent a huge market to cover a wide range of needs in patient care.
The Mexican Red Cross (CRM), which enjoys great acceptance and recognition from all of society, has not yet made this deployment in the country, but it has before it the great opportunity to play that role as recipient of donation and diagnosis of blood among the Mexicans. We talked with Fernando Suinaga Cárdenas, national president of the Mexican Red Cross, and he shared with us about the recent remodeling of the blood bank in Polanco in Mexico City, which was left with state-of-the-art technology and is inaugurated today. In this framework, the alliance signed with the Mexican laboratory Biogen will be announced, so that it operates the seven CRM blood banks and can take advantage of the plasma to fractionate it.
Due to the pandemic in the last two years, the CRM blood banks have been practically closed, but with this agreement the idea is to reactivate them and increase donations to increase the supply of blood and its derivatives.
They have already started with fundraising campaigns with an enormous response between companies and universities. The goal for now, says Suinaga, is to achieve 70 daily donations to exceed the monthly average of 2,000, with which they would initially cover their own needs and then support other institutions.
The goal is to gradually grow to the point of having blood banks throughout the country and perhaps in the future be able to say that Mexico is self-sufficient in blood and its derivatives, including, for example, coagulation factors for hemophilia, which the country must import at high cost. In fact, the national import of a range of blood products amounts to about 5,000 million pesos; Some seven foreign companies bring them, something that makes no sense since Mexico can gradually develop its capacity to have its own production with national raw material obtained from the blood of its own population.
That is why the agreement with CRM makes perfect sense: Genbio is in charge of operating the banks to collect whole blood, then fractionates it; the red part goes to CRM for surgeries and transfusions, the plasma is purchased by Genbio to fractionate it and convert it into blood products. If Genbio wasn’t there, the plasma would go to waste. It is the last straw that the health sector has to be importing blood products, while on the other hand it obtains a million liters of blood that are stored and later end up being thrown away at a high cost because the waste must be incinerated.
The interesting thing is that in Mexico there is already capacity to fractionate plasma. Genbio has had a plant for fractioning and transforming blood plasma for four years, but it is still in the process of obtaining its sanitary registration, for which it has been waiting for years for the certificate of good practices from Cofepris. Something important here is the fact that in Mexico it is not legal to pay for blood donation; then what is charged is to fractionate the vital liquid on request, and thus what is paid is a service because from fractionating the plasma the blood derivatives arise, which are the ones that are sold.
Journalist on economics and health issues
Health and Business
Communicator specialized in public health and the health industry. She is studying a master’s degree in Health Systems Administration at FCA of UNAM.
Founder in 2004 of www.Plenilunia.com, a concept on women’s health. I am passionate about researching and reporting on health, innovation, the industry related to science, and finding the objective business approach to each topic.