Blood legislation potential review

IPOPI participated in the PLUS Consensus Conference in January 2017 in Estoril (Portugal). PLUS, the Platform of Plasma Protein Users, organised a meeting bringing together organisations representing people living with treatable rare plasma related disorders, plasma industry associations, as well as blood donors organisations and  blood establishments. Participants discussed and explore common grounds for understanding in view of the future revision of European blood legislation.
As a result of the Consensus Conference, a joint letter was sent to the European Commission blood legislation unit, with the objective of providing some shared concerns on the European blood legislation. The letter was signed by the participating patient associations, the Plasma Proteins Therapeutics Agency (PPTA), the International Plasma Fractionation Association (IPFA) and the European Plasma Alliance (EPA).

The European Commission, the executive body of the EU, published an Evaluation of the legislation on blood, tissues and cells in January 2017. The objective was to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the current legislation and its functioning in the EU countries. More concretely, the evaluation aimed at looking whether the current legislation is still relevant, effective, efficient, coherent and adds any value to national policies. IPOPI submitted a response on the basis of the discussions held during the PLUS Consensus Statement and can be viewed here.

The European blood directive is the piece of law that regulates the quality and safety standards for human blood and its components (including plasma) and ensures high level of health protection. Elements such as ensuring traceability of all donations, the evaluation of blood donors, the assurance of proper storage, transport and distribution of the donated blood and blood components or the encouragement of voluntary unpaid donations are included within this piece of legislation.