AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 11 Today, Grifols SA (Grifols), a global healthcare company based in Barcelona, Spain, begins a month long celebration of Texas plasma donors in recognition of the state resolution designating August 2009 as "Plasma Protein Therapies Month." Grifols owns and operates 17 plasma donor facilities throughout the state of Texas and more than 80 across the United States. Grifols' national testing laboratory, headquartered in Austin, Texas, performs more than 1 million tests each month to assure the health and safety of Grifols' donors and the medicines produced from their plasma donations.
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"We applaud the Texas House of Representatives for designating August as Plasma Protein Therapies Month and thank the thousands of Texas plasma donors who make treatment possible for many patients who depend on plasma medicines," said company spokesman Christopher Healey. "Too often, people with rare diseases go unnoticed and undertreated; this will go a long way to raise public awareness of these medicines and the conditions they treat."
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Plasma donated at Grifols facilities is used to produce therapies such as intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) to treat primary immune deficiency, blood clotting factors to treat hemophilia and other bleeding disorders, and albumin, which is used for shock, trauma, and burns. Patients with a primary immune deficiency suffer with a severely compromised immune system that makes them susceptible to debilitating and potentially life-threatening infections and diseases. Individuals with hemophilia and related bleeding disorders are lacking the essential blood proteins necessary for their blood to properly clot. For these conditions and others, regular and life-long treatment with plasma therapies is often the only treatment option.
For more information about donating plasma and its life-saving properties please visit www.donatingplasma.org.
About Grifols
Grifols SA (Grifols) is a global healthcare company founded in 1940 in Barcelona, Spain. Today Grifols products and services are provided in more than 90 countries around the world. Grifols specializes in the production of plasma therapies to treat a variety of rare and often life-threatening diseases and conditions. Grifols operates 80 plasma donor centers throughout the US and has manufacturing and testing facilities located in Barcelona, Spain, Austin, Texas, and Los Angeles, California.
SOURCE Grifols, Inc.
