Доноры плазмы спасли жизнь бизнесмену, страдающему от редкого заболевания

A rare disease weakened his muscles. Plasma donors came to the rescue Within days of getting plasma-derived infusions, Richard Sperry could move his right hand for the first time in more than a year. A single treatment requires hundreds of donors to sell their plasma. When Richard Sperry’s right shoulder began to ache, the pharmaceutical executive thought he was overdoing it at the gym. “I was doing CrossFit at the time,” Sperry said. “I thought it was from doing things that I shouldn’t be doing in my mid-40s.” Then, almost overnight, the entire right side of his body was weak. He could not pick up a coffee mug, grasp a pen, or shave his face with his right hand. His wife had to help him button his dress shirts each morning. An orthopedic doctor sent him to a Philadelphia neurologist in late 2019. After a battery of tests, the neurologist diagnosed Sperry, then 45, with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease, a fatal nervous system disorder. The neurologist said he would die within three to five years. He went for another opinion, and a second neurologist concurred. In early 2020, Sperry traveled to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota for a third opinion. “‘I’m gonna cut to the chase — I don’t think you have ALS,’” Sperry recounted the Mayo doctor saying, as his sister erupted in tears. Sperry actually had a rare autoimmune disease called multifocal motor neuropathy, or MMN. The doctor prescribed intravenous immunoglobulin therapy, a treatment made from the blood plasma of healthy donors. Immunoglobulin is an antibody found in plasma, the straw-colored liquid in blood. Once back home in Princeton, Sperry got infusions for five straight days, sitting about four hours each time. A few days after treatment ended, Sperry awoke and discovered he could move his right hand for the first time in more than a year, he said. “My wife and I were in bed bawling,” Sperry said. “It was like a wonder drug.” Sperry is one of millions of people worldwide who depend on plasma donations for their medical treatment. The U.S. — one of only a handful of countries where it is legal to pay donors for plasma — supplies more than 70% of the world’s plasma supply. Demand for plasma is growing as the global population ages, more people like Sperry are being diagnosed with chronic diseases, and new medical treatments that require plasma are discovered, research shows. The value of a liter of plasma rose from about $181 in March to $192 in June, likely because of increased demand, according to Georgetown University professor Peter Jaworski, who studies the global economics and ethics of the plasma industry. » READ MORE: Philly-area residents selling blood plasma for money to try to make ends meet Sperry, 52, now works for GBS/CIDP Foundation International, a Conshohocken-based nonprofit that provides support to more than 30,000 people with MMN and two similar neurological disorders that can cause muscle weakness and paralysis: Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP). No cure exists for all three conditions, but symptoms are alleviated with regular infusions of plasma-based therapies. “It is life-changing for patients with rare and chronic diseases,” said Anita Brikman, president and chief executive of the Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association, a trade organization that represents donation centers in North America and Europe. Doctors are not exactly sure how it works on patients like Sperry, said Sami Khella, a Penn Medicine neurologist and clinical neurology professor at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. But if Sperry does not get his medicine on time, he will “develop weakness almost right away,” said Khella, who sees Sperry as a patient. Sperry’s condition causes his immune system to attack his nerves. The immunoglobulin in plasma quells the attack, Khella explained. Every four weeks, Sperry receives 35 grams of immunoglobulin through infusions over two days. It takes hundreds of donors to make 35 grams, Khella said. Sperry, who is back doing CrossFit, said it feels “scary” to be dependent on plasma donations. When he sees people going in and out of donation centers, he said, he is enormously grateful. “It’s not like the drug manufacturer can just build another plant and make more pills,” Sperry said.