Officials at a blood transfusion centre in Mykolaiv are suspected of selling donor plasma worth millions of hryvnias to a private company

Officials at the blood transfusion centre are suspected of selling donor plasma. File photo: NikVesti

The management of the Mykolaiv Regional Blood Transfusion Centre are suspected of illegally selling donor plasma suitable for patients to a private company based in Bila Tserkva. The court has ordered the seizure of accounting records and equipment confiscated by investigators.

This information is contained in a ruling by the Zavodskyi District Court dated 8 June, according to NikVesti.

The investigation established that in March 2026, the centre’s management signed a contract with the firm ‘Biofarma Plasma’ for the supply of 2,550 litres of donor material with a total value of over 5.9 million hryvnias. Officially, the plasma stored in the warehouses for over a year was to be sold to the private company, as, according to the law, it can no longer be transfused to patients in hospitals.

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A dose of such plasma costs 455 hryvnias. However, law enforcement officers discovered that, under the guise of unsuitable raw material, the firm may have been selling plasma that was fit for use. The state-set price for such plasma is three times higher – 1,510 hryvnias per dose – and its sale to private companies is prohibited.

According to a Cabinet of Ministers resolution, private companies are only permitted to sell plasma for processing if more than 12 months have passed since it was collected. Such plasma is considered unsuitable for transfusion to patients and costs just 455 hryvnias per dose. In contrast, fresh plasma, which can save the lives of patients in hospitals, costs 1,510 hryvnias per dose, and its sale to private firms is prohibited.

In June 2026, law enforcement officers carried out searches at the station’s premises. The court granted the application by the Mykolaiv District Prosecutor’s Office and seized all the property that had been confiscated, which was recognised as material evidence. This includes, in particular, contracts with Biofarma Plasma LLC, invoices totalling 1.5 million hryvnias, draft records containing data on blood collection from donors, plasma logbooks, and so on.

The ruling states that the acting director of the centre and the deputy head of the institution’s quality management department are named as alleged accomplices in the case. They are suspected of offences under Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (misappropriation, embezzlement or acquisition of property through abuse of official position, committed on a particularly large scale).

It should be recalled that in Mykolaiv, law enforcement officers uncovered a group of medical professionals suspected of organising a scheme to issue fictitious disability certificates to men of conscription age in exchange for money.