CSL boss Paul McKenzie is looking to make the company’s multi-billion dollar blood plasma business more efficient as the biotech tackles rising costs and foreign currency fluctuations.

Shares in the ASX market heavyweight, valued at over $130 billion, lifted by as much as 5 per cent on Tuesday despite the company confirming that inflationary pressures had hurt its full-year results.

However, investors were more focused on news that collections of the all-important blood plasma that CSL uses to make its life-saving therapies were up by 31 per cent, hitting record levels after widespread disruptions during the pandemic.

While the cost of collecting that plasma is down by 17 per cent from its March peak, CSL said some input costs – like the fees paid to donors for their plasma in the US – remained above pre-COVID levels.

Underlying gross margins in its blood plasma business, CSL Behring, are lower than they were before the pandemic, and came in slightly behind consensus expectations for 2023, at 49.2 per cent.

McKenzie said CSL had a balancing act to walk on donor fees, while ensuring it can continue to collect enough plasma to satisfy the growing demand for its therapies.

“[Donors] were used to receiving a higher rate during COVID – it’s not like the next day, you can change on them,” he said.

He also highlighted a range of efficiency measures CSL was doing to keep a lid on costs, including a plan to boost the amount of vital antibodies it can extract from each litre of plasma.

McKenzie added CSL was also focused on increasing the efficiency of its collection sites. “One of the things we really concentrate on is that from the time that you walk in the door to the time you leave, on average, are you moving that [the costs] down?” he said.