PPTA Launches New Website Tool

ANNAPOLIS, MD (September 23, 2009) – Visitors to DonatingPlasma.org can more easily find their local plasma donation center now with an improved search feature. The Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association (PPTA), which developed the website to raise awareness of plasma donation, unveils the tool today, seeking to build on the importance of providing up-to-date information to donors who provide plasma needed to manufacture life-saving therapies. DonatingPlasma.org gets on average 18,000 unique visitors each month.
Visitors will find an organized, user-friendly, and more comprehensive website. The new site includes online web mapping powered by Google Maps, which allows browsers to locate plasma donation centers in a more efficient manner and view a high-resolution street map, specifically pinpointing the address. In addition, browsers will now be able to search for a center by zipcode, city, state or country. 
"DonatingPlasma.org is a fantastic one-stop portal that promotes the critical need for plasma donation and the lives it saves, while also providing accurate information about the donation process,” said Jan M. Bult, PPTA’s President. “The goal of the enhancement is to provide plasma donors with greater flexibility and speed with locating International Quality Plasma Program-certified plasma centers in the U.S. and in Europe.”
DonatingPlasma.org is an educational website that features information on plasma donation, how it helps patients with chronic, life-threatening diseases, and how donations are essential in helping to save countless lives. The site contains up-to-the-minute information about plasma donation, including donor eligibility and health, frequently asked questions and the time and commitment required to donate plasma
With the new features and consistent updating to the new site, Bult said, "This new site will offer browsers an easy-to-use interface with much more information."

The newly designed site can be found at www.DonatingPlasma.org. For more information on the website or the plasma collection industry, please contact Kara Flynn at (443) 458-4669 or Kym H. Kilbourne at (443) 458-4682.

The Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association (PPTA) is the trade association and standard setting organization for the world’s major producers of plasma-derived and recombinant analog therapies (collectively, “plasma therapies”). These therapies are used by more than 1 million people worldwide each year to treat a variety of diseases and serious medical conditions. PPTA members produce over 80 percent of the plasma therapies for the United States market and more than 60 percent worldwide. Some of the critical therapies produced by PPTA members include: blood clotting factors for people with hemophilia, intravenous immune globulin used to prevent infections in people with immune deficiencies and other serious conditions, and alpha-1 proteinase inhibitor used to treat people with alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency, also known as genetic emphysema.