Plasma donation center opens in northeast Fresno

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- BioLife Plasma Services opened its second Central Valley location in northeast Fresno.

Donors are needed to address the growing demand of plasma, and also get compensated for it.

"We've really been welcomed by the Fresno community," said Timothy Lipson. "We've already built a pretty strong, loyal donor base from the community. So that's really exciting to see."

Lipson is the district operations manager for centers across the state.

He said, nationwide, there's an urgent and growing need for plasma, which comes from blood.

"We're able to create life-saving medications for really hundreds of thousands of people with rare and kind of complex diseases, like immunodeficiency disorders," he said.

BioLife has an extensive medical screening process for first-time donors. Once approved, the donor will go through the plasma collecting process -- similar to donating blood.

The process takes about two hours.

"Sometimes, it can take hundreds or thousands of plasma donations to create a one-year supply for one of our patients," Lipson said. "So it's definitely a community effort."

Following the collection process, the donor will be compensated in the form of a BioLife debit card. The compensation amount depends on the local center.

"We compensate for kind of the loyalty and time commitment for the plasma donation. That amount kind of varies from time to time, and then certainly based off of the local market," said Lipson.

The new location is located at 5636 N. Blackstone, near Highway 41 and Bullard Avenue.

For more information about BioLife Plasma Services and how to become a donor, visit their website.