MRS Cecily Cunningham, principal biochemist with the BTSB, said that in the early 1970s it was decided to establish a unit to manufacture anti D. It was an important development. "We were proud of what we were doing," she told the tribunal. She went to Germany to discuss manufacturing methods there.
There were difficulties about donors. Plasma could be taken from just a few of the 120 who volunteered. They used post menopausal women and a group of male Guinness workers.
So far as eliminating the hepatitis virus was concerned, she believed their manufacturing methods were "as good as could be devised. Nothing can be guaranteed 100 per cent."
She recalled an occasion in 1975 when the refrigeration system broke down. As it was a Saturday she rang the refrigeration engineer. He told her there was nothing he could do until Monday.
To save the plasma supplies she distributed them over the other fridges in the building. She realised that was a breach of regulations but she simply did it to save the plasma so that a decision could be taken about it later.
She thought one of the fridges she used was empty but she was not sure about that now. "I did not think it was dangerous. The plasma was in bottles. The bottles were in plastic and there was an outer thick box." She was never admonished for what she did.
In September 1976 a plasma exchange patient, who was contributing nine litres of plasma a week, was discovered to have a reaction to her plasma session. She was not told the patient had jaundice.
In all there were 2,276 doses of plasma in stock, about half of them from that patient. "For safety's sake it was decided that we should test the batch, just in case there was a problem." Asked if she was surprised that she was not fully informed about the problems with the plasma, Mrs Cunningham replied: "It does surprise me now." The fact that the donor was being tested was discussed at BSTB scientific meetings but the possibility that she might have jaundice or hepatitis was not discussed.