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The United States is without question the world’s blood plasma superpower and the global health system depends on Americans selling their plasma.
As wages stagnate and the cost-of-living climbs, a growing number of Americans are turning to plasma centers for extra cash. These centers pay people to undergo a procedure similar to blood donation, but the plasma — the golden-colored liquid — is separated out and sold to pharmaceutical companies, which use it to produce lifesaving medicines.
Plasma-derived therapies are essential for treating immune deficiencies, bleeding disorders like hemophilia, and certain neurological conditions. For many patients, there are no substitutes. Without a steady supply of plasma, hospitals around the world would face shortages of immunoglobulin and other critical drugs, putting thousands of lives at risk.
Roughly 70% of the world’s plasma used for medicines comes from the United States, and Texas is one of the states leading that supply. Every day, more than 100,000 people nationwide sell their plasma, often up to the legal limit of twice a week. In many cities, plasma centers are clustered in lower-income neighborhoods.
“We have this industry that's based around getting people to sell their plasma twice a week, every week, in perpetuity as long as they can,” said Kathleen McLaughlin, author of “Blood Money: The Story of Life, Death, and Profit Inside America’s Blood Industry.” She notes that first-time donors might earn around $45 for a visit, with pay jumping to $70 or more for a second donation in the same week, plus bonuses for repeat visits and referrals.
“It made me understand how many millions of Americans are just on the fringes economically, and this is something they need to do to get by,” McLaughlin said.
Peter Martin Jaworski, a teaching professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, studies the global plasma trade. He points out that paying donors is the only reason the system works at its current scale.
“The truth is that we just can't get enough people to donate as much plasma as we need in exchange for milk and cookies,” Jaworski said.
If financial compensation were removed, he warns, “thousands of people around the world would perish for want of immunoglobulin. It would be an absolute disaster.”
Supporters of the current system say paid donations save millions of lives and that donors are screened, monitored, and protected by federal regulations. Critics counter that the industry leans heavily on people in financial distress and that more safeguards, data transparency, and oversight are needed.
