Blood products giant CSL has been forced to almost double new plasma donor collection fees in areas of the US and offer free flu vaccines, as it works to reverse the COVID-19-induced drop off in collection volumes.

Its efforts to boost plasma donations have been successful, with collections up 18 per cent on this time last year, but have come with a hefty hit to the $126 billion biotech’s earnings before interest and tax margins, which slipped from 41.1 per cent to 36.7 per cent.