Area residents find that donating plasma is a good way to help others, your wallet

It’s a kind of “personal farming,” a harvest of proteins and plasma grown by one’s own body, sold locally and marketed internationally to the biopharmaceutical industry.

As the economy declines, the idea of earning extra money by selling plasma is more intriguing, even to the squeamish. And some of the final products can save lives.

The Internet abounds with sites to attract potential sellers of plasma, the fluid portion of blood in which blood cells and other micro-components travel throughout the body.

The going rate for donation of plasma is around $30 to $60. You even get your own red cells back.

The for-profit plasma collector in Lynchburg is IBR Plasma Center on Fort Avenue. “IBR” stands for International BioResources. (Efforts by The News & Advance to interview corporate spokesmen were

unsuccessful.)

Some people, like Phyllis Ozmar of Lynchburg, want to earn extra money through plasma donation. Ozmar uses the $240 a month to help her two children in college.

Ozmar donates two days a week. “It never affected me at all,” she said. The body replenishes the plasma in a few days.

Donation time varies, she said. “It takes me around 30 minutes to do the donation — plan on being there an hour an half for screening, check in and waiting.”

The collection process is called “plasmapheresis.” It begins like blood donation, with a needle puncture to draw blood. But instead of a blood bag, the blood goes to an automated device, which separates the protein-rich plasma and returns the red blood cells to the donor.

Nonprofit groups like the American Red Cross or Virginia Blood Services do not pay for plasma. They rely on gifts of whole blood or platelets from donors who receive no pay.

Plasma and its products are needed by people who have diseases like leukemia, or injuries such as severe burns, or who need a boost of gamma globulin, a substance that helps fight disease.

Justin Boogades, a college student in Lynchburg, said he’d heard for years about earning money from donating blood and decided to try donating plasma.

With things a little tight right now, he said, “$60 a week is not bad for a couple of hours at a time.”

The body quickly regenerates the fluid and the proteins, he said.

The Food and Drug Administration monitors donor facilities, which have to be licensed if their products cross state lines.

The FDA says that plasmapheresis can’t be more frequent than once in two days or twice in seven days. Blood protein levels are important, and if they drop, the person cannot donate until their levels are OK.The plasma centers’ role “is one of collectors and manufacturers of plasma products,” said Joshua Penrod, spokesman for the global source side of the Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association.

Products derived from plasma include treatments for clotting, for immune globulin and even a substance used to treat an inherited form of emphysema.

Penrod said that about 10 million collections were made nationwide in 2005. By 2006 that was 12.5 million and for 2007, it was 15 million. Some people are general donors, but others are part of specialty programs to produce specific kinds of plasma proteins. Penrod used as an example the manufacture of the Rh-factor treatment used during pregnancy.

The industry association launched a website Thursday, http://www.donatingplasma.org. It contains donor and patient stories, as well as information about the industry.

Penrod said the aim is to counter some “negativity” about the industry and “to present what the industry does, how people can be helped, and what we’re look for in donors.”

The industry wants people who live in the community, who are committed to the donating process, who will come back often, and are committed to staying healthy, he said.

Many of the plasma fractionators, the companies that make the products, are in Europe, said Dr. Pamela Clark, associate professor of pathology at the University of Virginia.

The plasma is pooled into huge vats and then the collected fluid is separated, said Clark, with the plasma undergoing a process that further divides the plasma into its component proteins. Those are concentrated, and the resulting products are used for patients.

Plasma can be frozen and held in quarantine until the qualification of donor is assured, she said.

Although the efforts made to assure purity are rigorous, the blood supply “is always at the mercy of the next unknown pathogen,” said Clark. Virginia Blood Services and the American Red Cross both rely on donors who give without payment.

The American Red Cross Appalachian Region Blood Services does not have a plasmapheresis collection service, said Roanoke-based Bob Lutjen, spokesman.

Volunteer donors often have very personal reasons for giving their blood or blood products, involving people they know who needed blood, said Lutjen. “Or they feel fortunate enough to be healthy and willing to share the good health with someone else.”

Brian Chandler is spokesman for Virginia Blood Services, which serves 22 hospitals from Charlottesville to Richmond. He said that organization relies on about 8,000 blood donations a month.

Nancy Beront works fulltime in Lynchburg, and heard about selling plasma from a co-worker. “I started to go in November for extra money for Christmas,” she said.

If she goes twice a week, it’s $60, she said. “I kept going.”

She uses the extra money for extras, like going to the movies.

“Things kept getting more and more expensive,” she said. Her family moved last June into a new home, and their living expenses went up 30 percent while her income went up 3 percent.

She feels fine. Her blood is checked each time she donates. “Every four months they do a battery of tests on your blood to make sure you’re healthy.”