Plasma Services Group pays people with health issues to make a difference. If you are managing an autoimmune, infectious disease or blood clotting disorder you can help advance medical research by getting paid for donating your blood or plasma.
After playing its part in the fight against COVID-19, the medical research company continues to focus on finding people with autoimmune, infectious diseases, and clotting/bleeding disorders to donate blood or plasma. That raw material is then used for research and to create more accurate testing of various health conditions.
The big difference between PSG and other blood/plasma donation services is that the company welcomes donations from people who live with different health issues.
“We want people to know that just because you have a specific diagnosis doesn’t mean you can’t donate or that your donations are not extremely valuable,” said PSG Vice-President Kate Boylan, who has co-owned the company since 2018 with her partner and company President Nichelle Porto.
“What we collect never goes into a person. It’s never used for therapy, or as an injectable, it’s used for research and diagnostic purposes only.” Boylan continued.
That puts PSG donors in a position to help themselves and others with their conditions, Director of Donor Recruitment Mike Delahanty noted.
“What makes us really unique is we accept anybody as long as they have an autoimmune, infectious disease, or clotting / bleeding disorder,” he said.
“People with things like Hemophilia or Lupus are typically unable to donate, but with us they are able to give back. They are able to donate their plasma, and it kind of makes them feel like they are part of the solution.”
A particular priority for the company during the past year has been finding donors with clotting disorders, Boylan added.
Plasma Services Group has collected dozens of donations from people who had COVID-19, helping to pave the way for faster and more effective testing for the virus. The samples and plasma donations were shipped to researchers and diagnostic companies in the US and around the world to develop and manufacture COVID-19 tests.
Now that our donors have stepped up and helped in the fight against COVID-19, we want to re-focus our efforts by supplying researchers and labs with the crucial plasma from donors with other health conditions.
A donor’s experience with Plasma Services Group starts with a small blood sample taken at the donor’s home. After about four to six weeks of testing determines whether a donor is qualified to complete a paid blood donation – also taken at home – or a paid plasma donation, which is taken at a donation facility approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
After the initial blood sample and testing, the company will inform you if you have qualified into their paid donation program. Qualified donors received $75 for each blood donation and $200 for each plasma donation. People who initially don’t qualify for paid donations after their initial sample has been collected and tested are not ruled out for future consideration,” Boylan emphasized.
“We keep donor contact information in-house – we don’t share it – so if a project comes along later that the donor would qualify for, we would reach back out,” she said. “We appreciate our donors immensely.”
Founded in 2004, Plasma Services Group set sail on its present course when the Boylan/Porto partnership took over about four years ago.
“That’s when we became a new company,” Boylan said. “And when Mike came on board, we revolutionized what we did with donor recruitment and became our own source for researchers and the diagnostic industry.”
Delahanty has a profound belief in the company’s mission.
“I work with a lot of foundations and Facebook groups,” he said. “If can be disheartening to hear patients talk about how much they are not heard.”
Not so at PSG, Delahanty stressed.
“That’s been the driving force behind a lot of the reason the donor program has been so successful for us,” he said. “We treat our donors like family, and we want them to know they are making a difference with their donations.
“The kind of mantra we live by is we are looking to change the future with research today.”