The legislature has allocated exclusive fractionation rights on the plasma from voluntary donations collected by the "Etablissement Français du Sang" within French territory to LFB BIOMEDICAMENTS, a pharmaceutical company whose shareholder is the French state.  In exchange, LFB BIOMEDICAMENTS must give priority to meeting the country’s demand with products derived from that plasma.

A public player in a competitive industry

In France, the plasma-derived medicinal products industry is open to any competition.

Those medicinal products, which are designed to treat generally very serious diseases, are prescribed primarily in hospitals.  Pharmaceutical companies with Marketing Authorizations (MA) in France bid for tenders from hospitals and clinics.

 A unique feature of French legislation* is that, for ethical reasons, access to the market is reserved for plasma products from unpaid donations. Several companies thus regularly bid for tenders from French hospitals with products manufactured around the globe with plasma that in principle** comes from unpaid donations.

 *HPST law, passed in June 2009.

** There is a dispensatory system to cover certain exceptional needs.