The report is available in English with a French summary - KCE

20 Plasma KCE Reports 120
This number of units collected and testes must be justified by the invoices relating to
these tests and certified by an internal or external auditor. The definitive balance of the
institutions is calculated following the submission of the supporting documents, which
are sent to the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products. In 2007, a sum of
14.00 EUR was paid for each test actually conducted. The Royal Decree states that the
subsidies granted can under no circumstances exceed the real costs incurred.
The remuneration procedure defined for the NAT test licence is as follows: systematic
collection of royalties for the test manufacturer - reflecting the number of usable
results; for example if a single test is used for 10 pouches of blood (pool testing), the
number of royalties will be equal to ten although only one test has been used if negative
result). In addition, the subsidy depends on the number of units successfully collected
and the number of tests certified in an invoice. As mentioned above, these are linked to
the number of usable results and not necessarily to the number of units used as
reagents. This means that if a pooling process is used (which seems to be the case for
the Red Cross), the amount of the subsidies may be dissociated from the number of
reagents purchased. For the Red Cross, the system of pool testing may lead to a saving
in manpower.
Key points
• The collectors of whole blood receive a specific subsidy for the NAT tests to
detect HIV1 and HCV
• The Red Cross uses a system of pooling to carry out these tests, likely saving
in manpower
• The firm selling these tests receives royalties in function of the number of
usable tests (not necessarily of the number of tests carried out)
2.1.2.6 Cost of plasmapheresis
Year
We found the costs associated with the collection of plasma from plasmaphaeresis in an
internal SFS report. Unfortunately, we did not have the opportunity to consult the
same reports for the VDB.
Table 7: Costs SFS associated with the collection of 1 liter plasma from
plasmapheresis
Donor
manag
Direct cost Organisation
Total
Total
Collection Labo Distribution
costs
direct
1997 2.68 49.75 15.39 1.64 69.46 20.62 90.08
1998 4.04 50.25 13.76 0.77 68.82 17.75 86.57
1999 4.66 52.11 17.07 0.77 74.61 20.97 95.58
2000 5.97 53.69 15.02 0.92 75.60 20.15 95.75
2001 7.09 62.32 16.19 1.19 86.79 23.19 109.98
2002 3.37 65.49 19.03 1.37 89.26 17.94 107.20
2003 5.22 67.62 27.10 1.35 101.29 16.92 118.21
2004 7.53 67.29 27.30 1.06 103.18 24.79 127.97
2005 8.73 67.56 27.28 1.33 104.90 26.96 131.86
2006 10.25 72.72 28.85 1.42 113.24 31.40 144.64
2007 9.12 78.51 29.26 1.25 118.14 35.37 153.51
(Source: SFS – internal reports)
If we subtract the subsidies from the total costs, we can compare the SFS net cost to
the price received.