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International Plasma and Fractionation Association (IPFA), Amsterdam logo

International Plasma and Fractionation Association (IPFA), Amsterdam

IPFA is an Amsterdam based association of not-for-profit organisations that collect plasma, test it, or fractionate it into medicines; it presents itself as the voice of the public sector plasma system and argues for plasma supply tied to domestic donation. Its 14 members are national blood services and public fractionators, among them NHS Blood and Transplant, Sanquin, LFB Biomedicaments, Canadian Blood Services and Australian Red Cross Lifeblood; commercial fractionators are not members. In the CJD field it acts as a consulted stakeholder on EU rules for plasma-derived medicines: EMA named it as an interested party in 2009, it published a vCJD position paper in October 2010, and it was one of seven commenters on draft revision 3 of the CHMP CJD reflection paper. An IPFA staff scientist co-authored the 2023 Vox Sanguinis review arguing that UK plasma is safe for fractionation with respect to vCJD. With the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut it runs a yearly workshop on blood-borne pathogens that has included vCJD sessions. Information only, not medical or regulatory advice.

Key facts

  • IPFA describes itself as representing not-for-profit organisations that fractionate plasma, collect plasma or carry out quality testing of plasma for fractionation, and says it speaks for them to regulators, medicines agencies, political bodies and patient and donor groups. Its registered address is Plesmanlaan 125, Amsterdam (Dutch Chamber of Commerce 40537011).
  • The member list shows 14 organisations: Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, Blood Centers of America, Canadian Blood Services, Centro Nazionale Sangue (Italy), Creative Testing Solutions (USA), Hema-Quebec, Japan Blood Products Organization, LFB Biomedicaments, National Bioproducts Institute (South Africa), New Zealand Blood Service, NHS Blood and Transplant, Sanquin, Taiwan Blood Services Foundation and Banc de Sang i Teixits (Spain). EFS, BPL and commercial companies such as CSL Behring, Grifols and Takeda are absent.
  • Each member organisation holds an executive board seat; as of 2026-10-17 the president came from Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, the vice president Europe from LFB and the treasurer from Sanquin. A secretariat in Amsterdam includes a director of scientific and regulatory affairs, and a Working Group on Regulatory and Clinical Affairs follows regulatory developments for members.
  • The EMA concept paper of 23 July 2009 on updating the CHMP position statement on CJD and plasma-derived and urine-derived medicinal products listed IPFA, with PPTA, the European Haemophilia Consortium and EPPIC, among interested parties to be consulted (as recorded in the evidence register; the PDF was re-fetched 2026-10-17 but its text could not be extracted).
  • IPFA lists a position paper on variant CJD and plasma-derived and urine-derived medicinal products dated October 2010, its only position paper on a prion disease among five on the site; the content was not read.
  • IPFA was one of seven parties that commented on the 2018 draft of revision 3 of the CHMP reflection paper on CJD and plasma-derived products, with the European Haemophilia Consortium, PPTA and UK government, blood service, patient and immunodeficiency bodies; the final revision 3 is dated 30 May 2024 (register record; PDF text not extractable in this session). A search excerpt of the comments overview says IPFA welcomed the draft and asked that data on prion-bearing exosomes in blood and plasma be considered (search excerpt only).
  • IPFA's director of scientific and regulatory affairs is one of 15 authors of Thomas et al., Vox Sang 2023, a review published online 7 March 2023 with UK blood services, the UK Department of Health and Social Care, the European Blood Alliance, CSL Behring, PPTA and the UK National CJD Research and Surveillance Unit. It notes no reported transfusion-transmitted vCJD from over 40 million UK blood components issued since leucodepletion in 1999, concludes that UK plasma is safe for fractionation, and asks regulators to revise donor deferral rules.
  • IPFA and the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut have run an annual International Workshop on Surveillance and Screening of Blood-borne Pathogens since 1994. The 28th edition (Porto, 21 to 22 September 2022) had vCJD and other prion diseases as a programme topic, and the 30th (Aarhus, May 2024) included an NHSBT talk on vCJD and the return of UK plasma to fractionation.
  • The 31st workshop (Heidelberg, May 2025, with PEI and the Robert Koch Institute) included a talk on amyloid beta as a possible transfusion-transmissible agent and an update on the UK Infected Blood Inquiry; no prion session was named.
  • A directory profile gives 1990 as the founding year and lists relations with WHO, the Council of Europe, the European Commission and the US FDA (third party source, unconfirmed by IPFA).

Timeline

  1. 1990founding year according to the Union of International Associations directory (unconfirmed by IPFA).
  2. 1994first IPFA/PEI workshop on surveillance and screening of blood-borne pathogens.
  3. 2009named as an interested party in the EMA concept paper on updating the CHMP CJD position statement for plasma-derived products.
  4. 2010IPFA position paper on variant CJD and plasma-derived and urine-derived medicinal products.
  5. 2019comments on draft revision 3 of the CHMP CJD reflection paper (consultation closed 31 October 2019).
  6. 202228th IPFA/PEI workshop in Porto with vCJD and other prion diseases on the programme.
  7. 2023Thomas et al. review on UK plasma and vCJD published online with an IPFA co-author.
  8. 202430th IPFA/PEI workshop in Aarhus with a talk on vCJD and the return of UK plasma; EMA adopted revision 3 of the reflection paper the same month.
  9. 202531st IPFA/PEI workshop in Heidelberg with a talk on amyloid beta as a possible transfusion-transmissible agent.
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