CHEYENNE — While touting a “growing demand in the U.S. and around the world” for the products it makes with donated blood plasma, BioLife Plasma Services abruptly and permanently closed two of its three Wyoming locations Tuesday.
The BioLife Plasma centers in Casper and Laramie were shuttered, reportedly without notice, sending ripples through those communities with people who regularly sell their plasma to make ends meet.
Andy Tholl of Casper is one of those people, who said he has regularly supplemented his income by donating plasma for more than 20 years.
“I’ve been doing it consistently for about five years, but off and on since I was 18, so 22 years,” Tholl told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday.
The stereotype of homeless people donating blood for a glass of orange juice and a cookie is nothing like modern plasma donation, Tholl and BioLife said.
It’s a simple medical procedure that filled an important gap in his monthly budget, Tholl said, adding he’d get about $400 a month as a regular donor.
“For me, it was my truck payment,” he said. “I do kids’ hockey, too, and that helped to keep doing that instead of choosing between that and (the truck payment).”
He said the company didn’t notify him of any canceled appointments and that he found out through a post to a local Facebook page.
That’s apparently how many other BioLife clients found out, with many lamenting how the little they’d get for donating went to help keep food on the table or the electricity on.
Tholl said he understands if a company has to make a business decision, but with a model like BioLife’s where people rely on that as supplemental income, a heads-up of about 30 days to plan would’ve been nice.
“It’s the courtesy — or no courtesy — of it that gets me,” he said. “I’m sure the employees also would’ve liked a heads-up.”
In a fact sheet published on its website, BioLife says each plasma center can employ up to 70 people.
Just how many workers at the Laramie and Casper BioLife locations are impacted by the closures isn’t available, while the company’s third Wyoming location in Cheyenne remains open.
Selling plasma can add up, with BioLife offering a $625 bonus for new clients and paying $40 for regular donations, which can be done twice every seven days.
People also can get $150 bonuses for each new client referred to BioLife, according to the company.
Why?
Messages for the now-former managers of both closed BioLife Plasma centers weren’t returned, nor was a message seeking comment from BioLife’s group manager based in Wyoming.
A visit to the Cheyenne location showed it’s still open and operating as normal. A manager there declined to elaborate on the closures, telling Cowboy State Daily all employees have been told by the company not to comment.
The BioLife Media Relations team did respond to an email asking for a person to talk to or responses to a series of questions.
The team responded with a statement that the company “is a trusted leader in the collection of plasma required to produce lifesaving and life-sustaining medicines for people with a variety of serious health conditions.”
The company also said in its statement that “there’s a growing demand in the U.S. and around the world for these medicines, which makes it extremely important for BioLife to optimize our network of plasma donation centers.”
The Wyoming locations were closed as BioLife examined its entire network of 235 centers across the country and “made the decision to close the centers in Casper and Laramie.”
The following questions asked by Cowboy State Daily weren’t responded to by the company:
• Did the locations in Casper and Laramie have any notice of the closures before they happened? Were the employees at those locations given notice ahead of the closures?
• How many people worked at those two locations?
• How many locations have been closed in the last year?
• What’s the reason for closing the Wyoming locations, and were there others closed (Tuesday) as well?
• The BioLife Plasma center in Cheyenne seems to still be open. Is the plan for it to remain open?
What Is Plasma?
Plasma isn’t blood; rather, it’s a translucent-yellowish liquid that makes up about 55% of a person’s blood, according to the Red Cross. It carries proteins, critical elements like potassium and sodium, and helps maintain blood pressure.
All the plasma collected by BioLife is used by its parent company Takeda Pharmaceutical for research and development of products.
BioLife uses a process that’s able to filter out plasma and return red blood cells to a patient.
A Pattern?
The sudden closures of the Wyoming BioLife locations follow the script reported with closures in other states.
Last year, a BioLife center in Clarksburg, West Virginia, suddenly and permanently closed last summer, also citing its companywide “optimization.”
It also produced what appears to be a statement on closing locations that’s identical to part of the statement sent to Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday.
“We’re committed to supporting BioLife employees in impacted roles during this time in multiple ways, including transition resources, consultation services and assistance to identify other opportunities within BioLife or our parent company Takeda,” it says.
The same seems to be true with the BioLife center in Marquette, Michigan, which closed permanently Aug. 25, 2025.
A statement issued addressing the closing of that Michigan location also included a duplicate statement that’s part of the company’s response to Cowboy State Daily.
“We’re extremely grateful for our employees, plasma donors and everyone in these local communities who have contributed to our mission to support patients who depend on medicines produced from plasma,” the media relations team wrote.
Other Trouble
Aside from closing the doors on BioLife Plasma Services locations around the U.S., the company has fought several high-profile lawsuits in various courts.
The most notable is a class-action lawsuit filed by clients who claimed invasion of privacy when third-party digital trackers skimmed their email and computer IP addresses without consent when filling out the BioLife donation form online.
That lawsuit was dismissed in October because the plaintiffs couldn’t prove any actual harm, according to court documents.
BioLife’s parent company, Takeda Pharmaceutical, has a much more active legal team. Takeda is listed as the defendant on nearly 5,500 open court cases, according to PACER, which tracks electronic records of court cases across the country.
Perhaps the most high-profile, Takeda continues to fight a major class action Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) charge over a diabetes drug called Actos.
The lawsuit claims the company, along with pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, defrauded patients by hiding an alleged link between Actos and a higher risk for people to get bladder cancer.
For clients like Tholl who now will have to find another way to supplement their income, going to the Cheyenne location instead isn’t really an option.
“It wouldn’t be worth the gas, because it’s, like, two-and-a-half hours, so definitely not worth the time or the expense,” he said.
It’s a shame it’s no longer available for people in Casper and Laramie, Tholl said.
“I’ve used that money to pay for all kinds of stuff,” he said. “But most of all, it was an it’s-there-when-you-need-it kind of a deal.”
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
