I found this on the 2012 AABB Ask the FDA and CLIA Transcript. Kind of old but I think still relevant. I saved because I once had an inspector that stated I had to be registered with the FDA to thaw FFP. (??!?) I knew it wasn't right but I didn't want to argue in the middle of an inspection and I didn't have anything in writing. Basically if you don't make a completely new different product, you don't have to register. If you take a product and make something completely different, you do have to register, e.g irradiating a unit creates a totally different product.
Hope this helps
Question 29: When is a transfusion service required to be FDA registered? Do the following processes require the facility to be registered? These examples were received from 4 different facilities.
thaw plasma and split RBCs
receive washed red cells from the blood supplier and then add plasma for an exchange transfusion
divide red cell or platelet products for pediatric use
re-label thawed fresh frozen plasma to thawed plasma
MS. CIARALDI: There's an easy answer, which is no, yes, no, no, but what I'd like to do is just take some time to explain why. The regulation that states who must or who is required to register is 21 CFR 607.20. It says specifically any establishment that manufactures a blood product must register, and there are some other criteria, but that's the main one that applies here. Additionally, there is a regulation 21 CFR 607.65(f), that lists some exceptions under which a transfusion service does not need to register, but that's a very limited and specific list. Now, to go on to the specific examples here, what I'd like to do is bunch bullets one, three, and four together. In those three situations, a transfusion service would not need to register. Thawing plasma to prepare it for a transfusion we don't consider the manufacturing of a product. So that is why that particular practice is exempt. In addition, splitting or dividing units for whatever reason, usually pediatric reason, is also not manufacturing a product. The end product is the same as the starting product. It's just smaller volumes. So that is the rationale behind why that would also not need registration. However, in the second bullet, washed red blood cells has plasma added to it, and the final product, which is sometimes called reconstituted whole blood or reconstituted red cells, is used for exchange transfusion. The answer to this is that, yes, registration is required, because the transfusion service is making a new product. The reconstituted whole blood is the new product. The final product, the whole blood product, is different from the two original starting products. So there is manufacturing of a product going on in this particular situation.
MODERATOR: Thank you, Judy.