Why so many companies want your blood
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Why so many companies want your blood

Blood is big business in the United States, making up over 2% of the country's exports. Since there's no substitute for human blood, demand can be hard to meet. During the pandemic, the U.S. faced a dangerous blood shortage, prompting the FDA to look harder at its ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men. In the U.S., it's legal to compensate people for their blood donation, creating a unique economy where for some people donating plasma is an economic coping mechanism.
13:50
Thu, Jun 30 202211:39 AM EDT

Lindsey Jacobson
Andrea Miller

In America, blood means big business. The North American blood market was valued at $3.3 billion in 2021, according to Global Market Insights Inc.

Blood makes up nearly 2.7% of U.S. exports. 

Since there is no substitute for human blood, demand can be hard to meet.

During the Covid pandemic, the Red Cross announced its first-ever national blood shortage crisis.

An earlier pandemic shortage prompted the FDA to loosen its restriction, which stems from the 1980s AIDS crisis, on accepting blood donations from men who have sex with men. Advocates want the FDA to follow the science and do away with the ban altogether, as have countries such as Italy and Spain.

Grifols, CSL Plasma, Takeda's Biolife and Octapharma are huge players in the blood collection space, particularly plasma, and donors are compensated.

In most countries, blood donation for compensation is banned, but not in the U.S.

In fact, the U.S. supplies 70% of the world's plasma.

Watch the video above to learn more about how the weird economy of blood works, why the U.S. is such a major player, what makes plasma so valuable and what policies are on the table.