Health coalitions share ethical concerns with for-profit plasma deal by Canadian Blood Services

Some Canadian health organizations are calling for the CEO of Canadian Blood Services (CBS) to resign after an agreement was signed with a private company to boost plasma supply.

CBS signed a 15-year agreement with a Spanish company, Grifols, which pays for plasma and turns it into immunoglobulins – the most widely used plasma-based medications.

The Canadian Health Coalition (CHC) says this isn’t ethical.

“We’re not in favour of anyone being paid to sell their blood or plasma products,” said Pauline Worsfold, the chair of the CHC. “No, we’re not in favour of that at all. And all they have to do is set up clinics to make it more accessible for people to do it, and put out calls.”

The provincial director of the Manitoba Heath Coalition echoed the ethical concerns.

“Experts are absolutely against this, the WHO, the European Blood Agency, and a number have said there are real ethical concerns when putting our supply in the hands of private suppliers,” said Thomas Linner.

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When the deal was done, CBS CEO Dr. Graham Sher said the agreement put controls in place to ensure the plasma collected in Canada stays in Canada and can’t be sold offshore.

Sher called it a transaction that serves the domestic market, which already purchases most of its plasma products from U.S. manufacturers, since Canada only meets 15 per cent of plasma needs through local donation.

“This is really about continuing to build our own plasma collection networks, while accelerating the opportunity to get to our target, so we can minimize risk to patients down the road,” said Sher.

“This is an actual matter of life and death for our patients.”

Jennifer van Gennip at the Network of Rare Blood Disorder Organizations (NRBDO) says they’ve been asking for a deal like this for years. She says her organization shares the concerns others have about the privatization of health care, such as clinics, but says what the CBS did was very different.

“We absolutely believe all blood should be donated freely, and given in hospital freely when people need it – that system should stay completely voluntary,” said van Gennip. “We’re talking plasma collection, which is already a private market, that’s already monetized.

“There are no safety concerns, this is all about securing supply for Canadian patients.”

In a press release, Grifols says a newly built, state-of-the-art Montreal plant is expected to start operations in 2024 and be fully operational sometime in 2026, when the company will become the only large-scale commercial manufacturer of plasma products in Canada. Until then, production will take place at its site in Clayton, North Carolina.