EDMONTON — Yesterday, private, for-profit plasma collector Grifols announced a phased reopening of their paid plasma collection centres in Canada, beginning with one centre in Winnipeg and one here in Edmonton.
In August, Grifols announced it was temporarily pausing blood plasma collection at all of its collection sites across Canada, including those in Alberta. That news came after months of public scrutiny on the company’s operations following the deaths of two individuals who sold their plasma at a Grifols site in Winnipeg.
“The return of pay-for-plasma to Alberta is bad news for Canadians and Albertans. Serious, ongoing safety concerns have been raised over Grifols’ paid plasma collection sites across the country, including at the Calgary collection site which was found to be non-compliant with federal safety regulations,” said Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare. “In the many long months since two people died after selling their plasma to Grifols, we have not seen the urgency we should have to ensure public safety. We should not be allowing these sites to simply reopen after a short pause.”
Public health care advocates across the country have continued to call for Grifols’ paid plasma centres to be shut down altogether and for Canada to return to a voluntary system of plasma donation. Yet little is known about the secretive deal between Grifols and Canadian Blood Services (CBS), which permits the for-profit company to operate as an agent of CBS across the country. The public deserves to know the details of the agreement and why this deal was signed in the first place.
“We cannot allow another preventable tragedy like the tainted blood scandal to occur. It is past time for Health Canada to step in to protect patients and the integrity of our blood and blood plasma supply in Canada,” said Gallaway. “Canadian Blood Services was borne out of that scandal, following recommendations of the Krever Commission that Canada’s blood and blood product collection should be voluntary and not-for-profit. But the frustrating reality today is that family members of those impacted and health advocates across the country are having to loudly push just for basic accountability from Grifols, Health Canada, and CBS.”
Alberta advocates, including Friends of Medicare, were successful in winning a provincial ban on paid plasma and blood collection in Alberta, before that legislation was repealed by the newly-formed UCP government in 2020. Just two years later, CBS, as Canada’s public blood authority, signed the unprecedented exclusive 15-year agreement that handed over the collection of plasma to Grifols, an international private, for-profit biopharmaceutical company. This contract, and its direct undermining of our voluntary blood and plasma donation system, was something that Friends of Medicare and many other health care experts and advocates, strongly opposed and denounced as a dangerous decision at the time.
“Enough with the backroom deals and corporate takeover of our health care. Our governments need to step in to ensure safety by banning paid plasma and bringing these collection services back under our public Canadian Blood Services umbrella. Canada established evidence-based public solutions to collect blood and plasma safely and voluntarily for a reason. We don’t need to continue down this dangerous for-profit road. It’s time to do what we should have done in the first place: put public safety ahead of profit,” concluded Gallaway.
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