The Federal Minister for Health, Abdul Qadir Patel, met with a delegation from the UAE and contractors from China in Islamabad on Monday to discuss the intricacies of developing local plasma farming facilities (PFF).
The delegation included members of the ruling family of Dubai, Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum, and representatives of Hayat Biotech Limited — a biotechnology company in UAE. The meeting was also attended by the Secretary of Health, the Special Secretary of Health, the Director General of Health, and representatives of hospitals and blood banks in Islamabad.
The goal of the mission is to carry out a feasibility study for the setting up of PFFs in Pakistan as per World Health Organization (WHO) standards because local blood services are mainly provided by hospital blood banks that have no functional separation of plasma processes in production and use.
The delegation will develop a feasibility report to determine the possibility of establishing PFFs in the country, for which the team will first visit the Reginal Blood Centre and the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital in Islamabad to assess their suitability.
It will later visit facilities in Lahore and Karachi to evaluate blood banks there and meet the provincial governments to discuss the advantages of plasma fractioning.
Subsequently, the team will ready a feasibility report for the implementation of the project and will consider establishing a plasma fractionation facility.
Speaking at the event, Minister Patel remarked that Pakistan appreciates its ties with the UAE and that their partnership in the field of health will greatly benefit the people of Pakistan. He added that reforms in blood banking services by ensuring the manufacturing of plasma from every unit of donated whole blood through proper processing and storage will be a major step in health reforms and economic development.
PIMS manufactures fresh frozen plasma (FFP) and approximately 9,772 units of plasma are annually administered to hemophilia patients. The Regional Blood Center, the Jamila Sultana Foundation, and the Dr. Akbar Niazi Teaching Hospital donate FFPs to PIMS when it runs short of its own supply.
