KEDPlasma welcomes donors to its new Augsburg collection center

On 10th July 2015, a new plasma collection center in Augsburg (Bavaria), managed by KEDPlasma GmbH on behalf of Kedrion Biopharma, has been inaugurated with an official opening ceremony. Kedrion now owns 17 collection centers worldwide, four of which are located in Germany: Ingolstadt, Fürth, Bayreuth and Augsburg.

The new collection center, staffed by team of 11 under the supervision of Center Manager Brigitte Hübner, is situated in the heart of the city, on the second and third floors of a building facing City Hall Square (Rathausplatz, Philippine-Welser-Straße 8). The center is able to welcome up to 40 donors at the same time. Their altruistic donations are essential to the production of plasma derived therapies.

“Thanks to KEDPlasma´s new center, Augsburg´s citizens can donate plasma and contribute to help providing life-saving plasma-derived therapies to the growing number of patients that Kedrion Biopharma´s serves”, stated Stephan Walsemann, Managing Director of KEDPlasma Germany.

The opening ceremony of the new KEDPlasma center in Augsburg featured a tour of the facility and a plasma donation demonstration. Kedrion’s Global Communication Director Marialina Marcucci, Dr. Stephan Walsemann, Dr. Brigitte Hübner and an Augsburg city councilman, Rudolf Holzapfel, amongst others, attended the event. "I was impressed” commented Stephan Walsemann “by the very warm welcome of the representatives of the town of Augsburg during the opening ceremony and the offered support to our business”. 

KEDPlasma works with donors in America and in Europe to collect plasma in state-of-the-art collections centers located in Germany, Hungary and the United States*. Plasma is processed in Kedrion Biopharma’s manufacturing plants to produce plasma-derived therapies for the treatment of serious diseases and conditions such as hemophilia and immunodeficiencies.

KEDPlasma GmbH’s headquarters are in Gräfelfing, near Munich, in Bavaria (Germany). It manages four collection centers in Ingolstadt, Fürth, Bayreuth and Augsburg, employing over 100 staff.

Kedrion Biopharma has a commercial presence in the German market, and works in close partnership with the KEDPlasma team to ensure patient access to the plasma-derived therapies it distributes in the country. Immunoglobulins for the treatment of immunodeficiencies, and albumin for use in critical care settings, are amongst the products Kedrion makes available in Germany.

Kedrion Biopharma’s mission is to act as a bridge, a vital connection between donors and patients in need of care, collecting plasma to manufacture plasma-derived therapies.

In our plasma collection centers, a procedure called plasmapheresis is carried out whereby blood plasma is separated, and the red cells and platelets are reinfused into the donor. The procedure usually requires approximately 45 minutes, and as the donor’s body rapidly replenishes their plasma, more frequent donations can be made compared to whole blood donations.

After collection, plasma is quickly frozen so it can be safely stored. Plasma is used as raw material to produce plasma-derived products. To do this, plasma is separated into its various constituents in a process called fractionation. The isolated proteins are purified into plasma-derived products including clotting factors, albumin and immunoglobulins. Plasma-derived therapies are used by millions of people over the world for the treatment of specific diseases – some severe – like hemophilia and immune deficiency disorders.

Kedrion upholds, documents and implements its processes and activities in accordance with the highest international standards of quality, including QSEAL (Quality Standards of Excellence, Assurance and Leadership) and IQPP (International Quality Plasma Program) voluntary certification, both awarded by the Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association (PPTA).

 * Products available for sale in the United States are manufactured from plasma collected in the United States.

More information on plasma donation, plasma-derived therapies and diseases is available from our website www.kedrion.us or www.kedplasma.de.