Project: Romania’s national blood, stem cell bank to require EUR 180 mln investment

A public-private partnership project on establishing a national bank of blood, plasma and stems cells was published on the website of the National Commission for Strategy and Prognosis. According to this project, such a bank would require a total investment estimated at RON 854 million (some EUR 180 million), without VAT, local Economica.net reported.

The project would be implemented in 25 years, of which ten years of actual execution, phased for each of the three components - the stem cell bank, the collection centers, and the plasma processing/fractionation plant. The public partner would be the Health Ministry.

“The investments will be made gradually, in accordance with the timetable agreed with the public partner, but not later than foreseen in this grounding study. In the first phase investments will be made in the collection capacity, then in testing and storage, and then, after having a collection capacity of at least 300,000 liters of plasma per year and 5,000 samples of stem cells, the investments in the processing capacities will kick off,” the project reads.

The direct/secondary beneficiaries will be all the transfusion centers in the national network, all public and private maternities, all public and private blood transfusion units, as well as the hematology and bone marrow transplantation clinics. The objective is part of the National Health Strategy 2014-2020.

The project quoted by Economica.net reminds that, according to the country report prepared by the European Commission, the Romanian population’s health is poor. For example, life expectancy at birth is well below the EU average, both for males (71.6 years versus 77.8) and for women (78.7 years versus 83.3). Meanwhile, mortality rates related to the circulatory system and infant mortality are very high.

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