In the field hospitals of World War I and World War II, medics carried a life-saving secret weapon: dried plasma. Mixed in large batches, packed into glass vials, and reconstituted on the battlefield, it was crude by today's standards, but it worked. Then, advances in manufacturing, rising sterility standards, and modern blood banking made liquid plasma the standard of care, and dried plasma largely fell out of use.
Now, nearly a century later, the concept is back, and Versiti is helping bring it into the 21st century.
In March 2026, Versiti became one of the first blood centers in the country to receive and begin installing next-generation spray-dried plasma equipment. The technology advancement is a fundamental rethinking of what a blood product can be: plasma that is dehydrated through a sterile, closed-system process, stored at room temperature in lightweight, portable plastic containers, and reconstituted in the field using sterile water. No refrigeration required, no cold chain to maintain.
The mid-20th-century process involved pooling large quantities of liquid plasma, drying the mixture in bulk, and packaging the result in fragile glass vials that were difficult to transport and vulnerable to contamination. Today's approach uses a modern, closed, sterile system designed for the realities of emergency medicine.
"We're doing this to advance the care of critically ill individuals," said Mike Janasik, Versiti's Director of Portfolio Strategy. "Spray-dried plasma is the realization of an innovation that's been decades in the making. What's old is new again, but the way we're producing it now is completely different."
The implications for emergency and pre-hospital care are significant. For EMS teams treating traumatic hemorrhage in the field, every minute matters, and conventional plasma is often unavailable or impractical outside of hospital settings. Spray-dried plasma puts a stable, effective plasma product within reach wherever care is being delivered.
"The clinical potential of this product for trauma patients is real and meaningful," said Jenna Wade, MD, Associate Medical Director, Transfusion Medicine at Versiti. "Being among the first blood centers to install this equipment and train our teams positions Versiti to contribute directly to the evidence base that will support FDA approval, and ultimately, to getting this product to the patients who need it."
Versiti team members are currently training to produce the product, with plans to support a Phase III clinical trial toward FDA approval in 2027.
For Versiti, early adoption of this technology is part of our nearly 80-year commitment to blood health innovation.