As mentioned earlier CSL are involved in plasma collection and fractionation, this forms a large part of their
organisation and is their core business so i’ll be focusing on that.
I’m now going to talk about CSL’s competitive advantages. For many years, CSL has been expanding their
plasma collection network meaning that they now operate 1-in-3 collection centres in the US. This enables them
to be the largest global procesor of plasma; they produce 18 million litres per annum compared with 14 million
produced by their nearest competitor, this is a competitive advantage as CSL have increased control over an
increasingly scarce resource and enables them to produce more plasma products than any of their competitors
and therefore acquire market share from them.
Another competitive advantage is that CSL has heavily invested in the efficiency of the plasma collection centres
and processing plants meaning that their production costs are 10-20 percent below the industry average this
means they can increase their profit margins and allocate more money for further research and development.
Change slide
CSL has maintained its growth by investing in new medical treatments that help them stay at the forefront of
medical innovation. For example in 2020 CSL made a 450-million-dollar investment to acquire uniQure’s
haemophilia b gene therapy treatment that they hope to commercialise. Gene therapy treatments are widely
believed to drive the next wave of medical advancement. In March 2022 they acquired Swiss company Vifor
Pharma for 11.7 Billion this company focuses on kidney and iron deficiency therapies. By entering different
markets it allows CSL to not be overly reliant on one product sector.
So as you can see it is immediately apparent that the CSL management team are very prudent in their decision
making. They have made sure that they have the infrastructure to efficiently collect more plasma than any
competitors and have also strategically acquired new treatments to continue growth and expand their product
portfolio to remain a leader in the biotechnology industry.