---
endpoint: analytics
pattern: Healthcare
status: done
latency_ms: 153864
conversation_id: 2768ba34-ebcb-44e1-b154-f2cc7a9dac06
citations: 13
created: 2026-05-31 18:24:02Z
---

# Who are the key customers and suppliers of CSL?

# CSL Limited (ASX: CSL) — Key Customers and Suppliers

CSL is a global biotech operating across three franchises — **CSL Behring** (plasma-derived therapies and recombinants), **CSL Seqirus** (influenza vaccines), and **CSL Vifor** (iron therapy and nephrology). Its supply chain and customer profile reflect that vertically integrated, plasma-centric model: it sources human plasma from its own donor centres (with critical equipment/consumables partners), and sells to a mix of governments, hospitals, buying groups, and distributors across 40+ countries [2].

---

## Key Customers

CSL discloses customer composition through its trade-receivables credit-quality table, which is the cleanest disclosure of "who pays CSL." The four buckets the company explicitly reports are **Financial Institutions, Governments, Hospitals, Buying Groups, and Other** [1].

### 1. Governments and government-backed entities (very large channel)
- **Government or government-backed entities (such as hospitals) often account for a significant proportion of trade receivables** [1]. CSL specifically calls out exposure to a number of **Southern European governments** for which it applies country-by-country credit assessment [1].
- Historical example: **CSL Behring MEPE had receivables from government hospitals in Greece**; settlement was offered by Greek government zero-coupon bonds [1]. In FY11 CSL recorded a US$25m expense from losses on Southern European receivables, mainly from selling Greek government bonds at a discount [1].
- **Australian Government** — Long-term contractual customer for the Parkville/Tullamarine cell-based vaccine facility, including pandemic preparedness, anti-venoms, and Q-fever vaccine ("our long-term partnership with the Australian government to provide protection against future influenza pandemics, as well as ongoing supply of other essential products such as anti-venoms and Q-fever vaccine") [7].
- **US Government channels**: CDC and Department of Defense (DoD) — CSL highlighted that flu-shot sales into "DoD, they're in CDC, there's no returns" (no return rights, unlike retail pharmacy) [also see Walgreens/CVS/Rite Aid below].

### 2. Hospitals
- Hospitals are a discrete reporting bucket in the trade-receivables disclosure [1]. CSL has expanded **US Ig and hospital sales forces** as part of its strategy to lift PRIVIGEN penetration, and has 100+ new hospital listings being pursued in China [8].
- Hospital channels drive demand for IV iron (Injectafer/Venofer) inside the patient blood management setting.

### 3. Buying Groups
- Reported as a separate receivables category [1] — these are US-style group purchasing organisations (GPOs) and integrated delivery networks that aggregate hospital/clinic demand for plasma-derived products.

### 4. Retail pharmacy chains (Seqirus flu vaccines)
- For flu vaccines, **Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid** are explicitly identified as large-scale "big-box pharmacies" CSL contracts with — these channels carry higher return rights than DoD/CDC/physician offices [Q4 FY22 earnings call detail].

### 5. Distributors / partners (geography-specific)
- **China — Baheal Medical**: CSL announced "an exclusive partnership with local Chinese distributor, Baheal Medical, focused on the private-pay retail segment" for albumin in China [8].
- **Japan (vaccines) — Meiji Seika**: "we previously announced a partnership with Meiji Seika, who will be responsible for commercialization of the vaccine in Japan" for the sa-mRNA flu vaccine [7].
- **US (CSL Vifor IV iron) — Daiichi Sankyo**: commercial partner for Injectafer/Ferinject ("we will do it successfully with our partner, Daiichi Sankyo") [9].

### 6. End markets (patient/payer level)
- 40+ countries of distribution, 32,000 employees, global manufacturing footprint across Australia, US, Europe, and China [2].
- Tender contracts are a meaningful customer mechanism in concentrated, public-payer markets — historically CSL has highlighted the **win-back of a UK tender contract** for Helixate as a sales-growth driver [12].

---

## Key Suppliers

CSL's supply base splits into three groups: **plasma donors** (its largest single "supply" input), **equipment & consumables vendors** for plasmapheresis, and **R&D / technology partners**.

### 1. Plasma donors — the foundational "raw material" supply
- Plasma is sourced through CSL's own **CSL Plasma** network — one of the world's largest and most efficient — with **300+ collection centres**, mostly in the US plus Germany, Hungary, and China [13]. By FY23, this footprint had grown to **more than 342 plasma collection centres** [2].
- CSL views donors as part of its stakeholder/supplier ecosystem — the company's value-creation statement explicitly lists "**employees, suppliers, plasma donors and research partners**" as those benefitting alongside investors [10].
- **Australian Red Cross Blood Service (now Lifeblood)** is the long-standing plasma supplier for CSL's Australian fractionation business — historically a "**7% increase in plasma collected by the Australian Red Cross Blood Service for fractionation at our Australian facility**" was called out as a growth driver [11].

### 2. Plasmapheresis equipment & consumables suppliers (critical dependency)
CSL's plasma-collection operation depends on two specialist medical-device vendors:

- **Haemonetics (NYSE: HAE)** — Historical/incumbent supplier. CSL extended the contract beyond the originally planned cut-over to Terumo: "**we heard from Haemonetics that you have extended a contract with them**" [4]. Management has consistently characterised it as risk-management ("**we'll continue to work with both suppliers to make the best of the transition**") [5] and confirmed the contract extension cost is not particularly material — driven primarily by ensuring "**continued to get soft goods and continued to collect plasma**" supply continuity [Q2 FY23 commentary].
- **Terumo BCT** — New plasmapheresis platform partner. CSL "**commenced the rollout of our new RIKA plasmapheresis devices**" beginning FY23, working through supply-chain challenges with Terumo [3]. The Rika rollout is the operational backbone of the Nomogram 1 plasma-yield uplift.

### 3. R&D and technology partners (supplier of innovation/IP)
- **Arcturus Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ARCT)** — Licensing partner for self-amplifying mRNA technology, used for next-generation flu vaccines and broader respiratory/pandemic targets [9]. CSL highlights it has "**inherited an mRNA manufacturing capability through a well-established network of contract manufacturers**" via this partnership [7]. The Arcturus collaboration is also called out in the FY24 sustainability narrative [9].
- **Academic and research partners**: **University of Melbourne**, **Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI)**, **Cicada Innovations**, and **Breakthrough Victoria** — co-founders/operators of the **Jumar Bioincubator** opened April 2024 [9]. CSL Seqirus also collaborates with the **WHO Collaborating Centre in Melbourne** for influenza vaccine seed strains [9].

### 4. Third-party / contract suppliers (audited supplier network)
- CSL runs an extensive vendor-audit program: in FY23, **"CSL Behring and CSL Seqirus conducted a combined 678 quality regulatory audits of suppliers worldwide"** — across on-site, virtual, and paper-based audits, plus 49 third-party PV audits [11]. This is the closest CSL gives to disclosing the breadth of its third-party supplier base (combined materials, services, contract manufacturers, and pharmacovigilance vendors).

### 5. Internal manufacturing nodes (vertical integration reduces external supplier dependence)
- CSL owns the key fractionation footprint — **Kankakee (US)**, **Bern (Switzerland, US$300m+ expansion for Ig)**, **Marburg (Germany)**, and **Broadmeadows (Australia)** — making CSL a supplier to itself for most plasma-derived API.

---

## Internal CLSA Research View

The only single-name CLSA note on CSL in the visible RMS workspace within the recency window is "**CSL — O-PF (ANDEMBRY approval)**" dated 17-Jun-2025, which focuses on the ANDEMBRY (garadacimab) HAE approval rather than supplier/customer disclosure. No CLSA initiation, sector deep-dive, or supply-chain note specifically dissecting CSL's customer/supplier base appears in the corpus as of the matched-set's latest date (30-Jun-2025).

---

## Summary Table

| Category | Key Names |
|---|---|
| **Customer — Governments** | Australian Govt (vaccines, anti-venoms); CDC, DoD (US flu); Southern European govts; UK NHS (tender contracts) [1][7][12] |
| **Customer — Hospitals/GPOs** | US hospital systems, buying groups; Chinese hospitals (100+ listings target) [1][8] |
| **Customer — Retail pharmacy** | Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid (Seqirus flu) |
| **Customer — Distribution partners** | Baheal Medical (China albumin); Meiji Seika (Japan vaccines); Daiichi Sankyo (US IV iron) [7][8][9] |
| **Supplier — Plasma** | Own CSL Plasma network (342+ centres); Australian Red Cross Lifeblood [2][11][13] |
| **Supplier — Plasmapheresis equipment** | Haemonetics (incumbent), Terumo BCT (RIKA platform) [3][4][5] |
| **Supplier — R&D / technology** | Arcturus Therapeutics (mRNA); University of Melbourne, WEHI, WHO Collaborating Centre [9] |
| **Supplier — Other** | 678 audited third-party suppliers (FY23) [11] |

---
**Sources**
[1] CSL Limited Annual Report 2020/21 — Credit Quality of Financial Assets (trade-receivable categories)
[2] CSL Limited Annual Report 2022/23 — Global footprint, 40+ countries, 32,000 employees, 342 plasma centres
[3] CSL Limited Q4 FY23 Earnings Call — RIKA plasmapheresis rollout / Terumo supply
[4] CSL Limited Q2 FY22 Earnings Call — Terumo plasmapheresis device + Haemonetics contract extension
[5] CSL Limited Analyst/Investor Day — Terumo transition, Haemonetics partnership continuity
[6] CSL Limited Analyst/Investor Day — Haemonetics soft-goods supply continuity
[7] CSL Limited Investor Day — Arcturus sa-mRNA licensing, Meiji Seika Japan commercialisation, Australian Government partnership for pandemic/anti-venoms/Q-fever
[8] CSL Limited Q2 FY26 Earnings Call (Feb 2026) — US Ig & hospital sales force expansion; Baheal Medical China distributor partnership
[9] CSL Limited Q2 FY24 Earnings Call — Daiichi Sankyo IV iron partner; Terumo Rika rollout pacing
[10] CSL Limited Annual Report 2023/24 — Arcturus Therapeutics partnership, Jumar Bioincubator with U-Melbourne, WEHI, Breakthrough Victoria
[11] CSL Limited Annual Report 2022/23 — 678 supplier quality audits; suppliers/plasma donors as stakeholders
[12] CSL Limited Annual Report 2007/08 — UK tender contract win-back for Helixate
[13] CSL Limited Annual Report 2020/21 — CSL Plasma 300+ centres (US, Germany, Hungary, China)
[14] CSL Limited Annual Report 2019/20 — CSL Plasma global plasma collection network leadership

## Citations

- [1] **CSL Limited, H2 2021 Report** · external
- [2] **CSL Limited, H2 2023 Report** · external
- [3] **Q4 2023 CSL Limited** · external
- [4] **Q2 2022 CSL Limited** · external
- [5] **CSL Limited - Analyst/Investor Day** · external
- [6] **CSL Limited - Analyst/Investor Day** · external
- [7] **CSL Ltd., Q2 2026 Earnings Call, 10-February-2026 6** · external
- [8] **Q2 2024 CSL Limited** · external
- [9] **CSL Limited, H2 2024 Report** · external
- [10] **CSL Limited, H2 2023 Report** · external
- [11] **CSL Limited, H2 2022 Report** · external
- [12] **CSL Limited, H2 2008 Report** · external
- [13] **CSL Limited, H2 2020 Report** · external

