France

The French Blood Establishment (EFS) is a public organization established in January 2000. EFS is the only civilian blood transfusion organisation in France (The Armed Forces Blood Transfusion Centre (CTSA) provides transfusion support to the armed forces). EFS has the monopoly over the collection, testing, preparation and distribution of labile blood products to some 1900 health care facilities.
Voluntary and unpaid donations, high quality blood products self-sufficiency, as well as patient and donor safety are the principles governing blood transfusion in France and enforced as such by French law and regulations. A majority of recipient blood typing and blood components issuing in France is carried out directly by EFS. The plasma for fractionation collected and qualified by EFS is provided to the Laboratoire Français du Fractionnement et des Biotechnologies (LFB) for further manufacturing into plasma derived medicinal products.
EFS comprises one national headquarter and 13 regional establishments (10 in mainland France, 1 in the Martinique, 1 in Guadeloupe-Guyana, 1 in Réunion island, also serving Mayotte), headed by directors appointed by the President of EFS and acting by delegation from him with regard to management and operations. EFS headquarter is in charge of overall strategic management of the establishment, operations coordination, medical and scientific matters, quality management, human resources, purchasing, finances, communication, information technology, legal affairs and technical services.
In 2020, EFS has performed more than 2,8 millions donations. In detail, 2 421 930 Whole blood donations, 301 283 plasmapheresis and 96 215 Plateletpheresis were carried out at EFS facilities. We were able to count on more than 1 500 000 donors.
EFS can also count on 10 000 EFS professionals in charge of collecting, preparing, analyzing and distributing/delivering blood products to health establishments and performing specialized examinations for transfusion or transplantation 7/7 and 24/24. Indeed, 10 000 blood donations are needed every day in France.
Aside from the core transfusion activities, EFS carries out the following associated activities: immunegenetics, tissue and cell engineering, advanced therapy medicinal products, reagent manufacturing, research, training and education.