
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Journalist Kathleen McLaughlin investigates the multi-billion dollar global plasma industry. Kathleen needs $15,000-a-dose medication to treat her rare autoimmune condition. While she sits for hours at a time, just down the block is one of over 1,000 blood donation centres in the USA extracting plasma, which forms an essential part of her treatment. Kathleen investigates the origins of her plasma-based medication and learns why people are resorting to plasma donation to stay out of debt, who is profiting from this booming trade and why the burden of global production is rooted in the US.
By BBC World Service4.3
16071,607 ratings
Journalist Kathleen McLaughlin investigates the multi-billion dollar global plasma industry. Kathleen needs $15,000-a-dose medication to treat her rare autoimmune condition. While she sits for hours at a time, just down the block is one of over 1,000 blood donation centres in the USA extracting plasma, which forms an essential part of her treatment. Kathleen investigates the origins of her plasma-based medication and learns why people are resorting to plasma donation to stay out of debt, who is profiting from this booming trade and why the burden of global production is rooted in the US.

7,696 Listeners

373 Listeners

1,048 Listeners

5,530 Listeners

960 Listeners

583 Listeners

1,776 Listeners

1,040 Listeners

354 Listeners

580 Listeners

959 Listeners

411 Listeners

415 Listeners

730 Listeners

849 Listeners

363 Listeners

996 Listeners

3,173 Listeners

1,003 Listeners

731 Listeners

1,003 Listeners

384 Listeners