International Plasma Awareness Week

Floor Speech

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Ms. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, International Plasma Awareness Week will occur October 11 to 17, 2015. Around the world, there will be observances to raise global awareness of the crucial need for plasma to create lifesaving therapies, recognize that plasma donors contribute greatly in saving and improving lives, and increase understanding of the many rare diseases and plasma protein therapies that help to treat them.

Plasma-derived therapies and recombinant blood clotting factors, collectively known as plasma protein therapies, are unique, biologic medicines that are either infused or injected to treat a variety of rare, life-threatening, chronic, and genetic diseases including bleeding disorders, immune deficiencies, pulmonary disorders, neurological disorders, shock and trauma, liver cirrhosis, and infectious diseases such as tetanus, hepatitis, and rabies.

Plasma-derived therapies save and improve lives of individuals throughout the world, including in emergency and surgical medicine. Plasma protein therapies have significantly improved the quality of life, markedly improved patient outcomes, and extended the life expectancy of individuals with rare, chronic diseases and conditions.

Healthy, committed donors provide the plasma essential to manufacture these lifesaving therapies; and there are more than 450 plasma collection centers in the U.S. that have demonstrated their commitment to plasma donor and patient safety and quality by earning International Quality Plasma Program (IQPP) certification.

I ask that my colleagues in the House of Representatives join me and rise in commemoration of International Plasma Awareness Week, honoring those committed donors and collection centers who make and collect needed and lifesaving contributions.

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