TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan has completed construction of its first domestic blood bag manufacturing plant, a move expected to strengthen medical supply security and reduce import reliance.
Health Minister Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said Tuesday that the facility received medical device approval from the Food and Drug Administration in July and is currently undergoing testing. Once fully operational, it is expected to produce up to 2.3 million blood bags annually, according to CNA.
Blood bags are sealed medical containers used to collect, store, and transfuse donated blood. Except for the collection needle, the system remains closed throughout the process, reducing the risk of contamination, according to the Chia-Yi Christian Hospital.
The plant is operated by PuriBlood Medical Co., established through technology transfer with Nan Ya Plastics. PuriBlood is Taiwan’s only manufacturer of blood bags and leukocyte reduction filters, which remove white blood cells to improve transfusion safety, according to Sinotrade.
Taiwan collects about 2.8 million bags of donated blood each year. However, blood bags have long been imported due to the absence of a complete domestic supply chain, according to PuriBlood.
PuriBlood cited high investment costs and technical barriers as major obstacles to domestic production. Most bags currently come from Japanese manufacturers with factories in China and Thailand.
The company said earlier this year that it has prepared production capacity to support 8 million blood bags and 2.8 million blood bag–filter sets. As an initial step toward localization, PuriBlood currently supplies the Taiwan Blood Services Foundation with about 200,000 leukocyte reduction filters each year.
Each unit of whole blood in Taiwan is collected in a 250-milliliter bag, containing about 220 ml of blood and 30 ml of preservative solution, according to CareOnline. Hospitals nationwide use an average of 6,626 blood bags per day, according to TVBS.
Shih said the government is also planning a dedicated blood supply system for large-scale disasters. Under this plan, major emergency-designated hospitals would adopt a “donate and use immediately” model to rapidly expand blood supplies during emergencies.
