In 2016, the category of ‘human and animal blood’ – actually mostly blood fractions such as plasma products – earned the United States $19 billion (£14 million), close to what it got from selling medium-sized cars or soybeans.4 The chief of America’s Blood Centers, an association of blood banks, has called the US the OPEC of plasma.5 Half of Europe’s plasma for medicinal products comes from American veins.6
