News: CSL Australia's CSL says blood plasma fees are stabilising

SYDNEY, May 3 (Reuters) - CSL Ltd (CSL) said on Tuesday the fees it pays people to donate blood plasma, the core ingredient of its treatments, were stabilising after COVID-19 movement restrictions forced the Australian biomedical giant to hike prices.

CSL said the company may benefit from inflationary pressures as higher living costs encourage people to seek alternative income streams such as blood plasma donation.

The statement suggests that a major challenge to Australia's fourth-largest company is tapering: since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, CSL has boosted the fees it pays plasma donors - including a near doubling of payments to first-time donors - to offset a decline as lockdown restrictions prompted people to stay home.

"We expect to see a shift in the mix of donors. The proportion of new donors should come down and this should limit the growth of donor fees overall," CSL Chief Financial Officer Joy Linton told the Macquarie Australia Conference.

Including efficiencies brought by new technology to speed up the plasma extraction process, "we do expect the gross margin for Behring to recover and to return to pre-COVID levels over the next couple of years," added Linton, referring to CSL's blood plasma unit that makes most of its profit.

CSL, a former government laboratory which became a stock market darling after a string of large acquisitions made it the world's largest blood plasma company, has reported earnings declines after shrinking plasma donations curbed its ability to produce a host of treatments for rare illnesses.

Its vaccine unit, which makes the AstraZeneca Plc AZ.N coronavirus vaccine in Australia, has benefited from a surge in demand amid the pandemic, but blood plasma products remain its biggest earner.

Linton referred to raging inflation, the fastest since 1981 in the United States, where CSL has most of its plasma collection centres, saying that "relatively high inflation ... is actually positive for donors to come through the door as people are looking to top up their salaries".