Biomed-Lublin announces maiden delivery of plasma to LFB of France

2012-01-17



Biomed-Lublin on 16 January announced that it has completed the first delivery of blood plasma to France’s Laboratoire Francais du Fractionnement et des Biotechnologies (LFB), marking a further step in its plan to develop production of blood plasma derivatives for the Polish market.
The value of the first shipment is over PLN 5m (€1.1m).The raw material was purchased from the surplus stocks of Poland’s 13 Regional Centres of Blood Donation and Treatment (RCKK) under a Health Ministry auction held in August. LFB will now verify its technical documentation and conduct virusology studies, before initiating contract fractionation of the plasma under an agreement with the Polish company. Meanwhile, Biomed Lublin expects shortly to obtain marketing authorisations from the Office for Registration of Medicinal Products, Medical Devices and Biocidal Products (URPL), to sell in Poland three plasma derivatives to be produced in cooperation with LFB, namely albumin, immunoglobulin and blood clotting factor VIII. Biomed expects both processes to be completed in Q1 2012, and believes that first shipments of plasma derivatives to Poland will occur in Q2. The products will then be transferred to Biomed’s plant in Mielec (Podkarpackie voivodship), which by that time is expected to have obtained all the necessary documentation, equipment and permits needed to undertake the final stages of production and packaging of the products for the Polish market.
A second shipment to France is scheduled to take place within seven weeks.
At present Biomed Lublin derives the bulk of its sales revenues from probiotics, but blood derivatives are fast becoming a major source of revenue.