David McIntosh: A Watershed Moment for Global Plasma Community and Call for Unified Action

David McIntosh, Founder and Chair of United Plasma Action, shared Marilena Vrana’s post on LinkedIn, adding:

”Long-standing members of the international plasma community will recognise what a watershed this most welcome piece represents.

Marilena Vrana has summed up the need for transformational change most beautifully – in a way that has never before been put so well, nor so diplomatically.

For fellow LinkedIners less well versed in global plasma folklore, a summary translation may be helpful։

• the combined efforts of the Public and Private Sectors in this field, after 50 years of trying, have utterly failed the majority of rare disease sufferers worldwide. Over 80% are suffering and dying without receiving the plasma-derived treatments they so badly need.
• the consequent suffering and death is quite simply horrendous. It is also utterly shameful. It is also ridiculously unnecessary and very easily avoidable, if the international plasma community(ies) can just bury all hatchets and unite in common purpose.
• though Marilena Vrana diplomatically avoids this frank statement, the sad fact is that the Public and non-profit sectors are the principal cause of this shameful failure. Their total global contribution to the health and well-being of rare disease sufferers amounts to no more than 4% of the total need.
• Public and non-profit obstruction of progress is two-fold – first in their own operational failings (never, in no place at any time, ever delivering an adequate supply of human plasma – and secondly (most shamefully) in their constant, loud insistence on preaching and promulgating their failed policies as some kind of alleged plasma collection gold standard (which they most emphatically are not).
• the net result is a World in which some 200 million rare disease sufferers are receiving no plasma-derived medicines treatment at all – causing untold protracted sufferering and many millions of avoidable deaths annually.

This then is the background to the International Plasma Proteins Congress 2026, in Milan, Italy – as set out clearly in the tactfully diplomatic PPTA piece here below – and as highlighted somewhat more bluntly, above.

It’s a call for a clear-eyed honest assessment of the challenges faced.

It’s a call to arms – to action – not on behalf of experts or organisations, but on behalf of those 200 million sufferers, globally, whose plight has so far been untouched by our efforts.

It is to them that the whole Plasma Community’s united caring reach must now extend.”

Marilena Vrana, Vice President of Public Affairs and EU Operations Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association (PPTA), shared a post on LinkedIn:

”In just a couple of days the plasma community will meet in Milan at IPPC2026. I’m very much looking forward to it.

We’ll convene at a time when the clinical need for plasma and its derived medicines has never been greater. It’s also fair to say that building on the industry’s proven capability to meet patient need is equally urgent.

This stark dynamic will be at the forefront of our International Plasma Protein Congress (IPPC), starting with a keynote from Copenhagen Economics Managing Director Nikolaj Siersbæk on his firm’s new report on plasma-derived therapies (PDTs).

The report points out that an estimated 1 million patients in Europe suffer from the dozen most widely recognized rare diseases, all of which can be treated with plasma-derived medicines. This is more than three times the number of patients in the region benefiting from PDTs today.

This current imbalance will be further strained by rising global demand, overdependence on the U.S. for plasma for fractionation and – critically – insufficient collection within Europe.

Therefore, much of our agenda will focus on initiatives underway to fulfill our collective responsibility to patients for ensuring a robust and resilient ecosystem that delivers sufficient plasma-derived medicines when and where they are needed.

We’ll cover advances in donor safety, regulatory frameworks, innovation and national access policies rooted in evidence-based practices, as well as a healthy dose of realism.

As we’ll see, the most encouraging progress is the result of multilateral collaboration, with the public, private and non-profit systems each contributing to the greater patient good. Imagine, then, what this formula can do when deployed at an efficient scale and at speed.

It’s incumbent upon all of us who commit ourselves so passionately to this exceptional, complex and singular ecosystem go further. Collectively we must amplify the patient voice and drive the extended reach of these unique and lifesaving therapeutics.

Meaningful outcomes are tough to achieve under the best of circumstances. If you scroll today’s geopolitical, health care and industry-specific headlines, our work to guarantee a sustainable supply of plasma-derived medicines can seem particularly daunting. But it is not only achievable, it is a critical and necessary obligation we must fulfill.

I’m confident Milan will be a springboard to the next wave of success and collaboration. Together we can move ahead so that no patient is left behind.

It will be a pleasure to see you soon!”

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