I have written about the Canadian Blood Services before. I feel that the non-profit group is problematic and has been since it’s inception in 1998 in the wake of the Krever Inquiry.
The Krever Inquiry investigated Canada’s blood system failures. The Canadian Red Cross Society failed to properly screen blood, purchased plasma from high-risk areas like prisons, and delayed using heat-treated products to use up existing supplies. These acts constituted gross negligence. This led to the infection of tens of thousands of Canadians with HIV tainted blood. As well as decades of discriminatory practices that the CBS later apologized for..
I’m writing about them today because they just got caught lying to Canadians once again. This time about selling donated blood products overseas. It relates to the selling donated blood products to a Spanish drugmaker Grifols, based in Barcelona. This deal was originally penned in 2022. At the time, Canadians were told that these blood products would remain in Canada for use by Canadians. The CBS felt that Canadians were unable to keep up their own required plasma supplies. After reviewing multiple deals it selected Grifols.
“This agreement very importantly has built into it the important protections and safeguards that the national blood system needs to ensure plasma collected in Canada stays in Canada to serve Canadian patients and that there are no negative impacts on the blood system that we operate today,” said CBS CEO Dr. Graham Sher.
In the past decade several private, for-profit clinics opened across Canada which pay people for donating plasma. This system is not dissimilar to the way blood donation works in the US. Right now Canada continues to purchase some blood products such as plasma from other sources. Additional for profit clinics have opened in Fredericton, Saint John and Moncton, all of which are owned by Grifols.
“We’re not having an argument about the final drugs and the safety of those medications. We’re talking about the system as a whole, and how you’re procuring and who gets to procure that plasma. In our country, Canadian Blood Services has the sole responsibility to do that. And there’s no legitimate reason why we should we selling the sovereignty of our donors away to a private company to make profit off the sale of plasma.” said Kat Lanteigne, executive director of Blood Watch.
Grifols uses the collected plasma to make Gamunex from immunoglobulins for Canadians. But here’s the important part: “When CBC News asked in January what CBS was doing with those byproducts, CBS said they were throwing them out.”
However on a call with investors in the summer, the CEO of Grifols revealed that those byproducts are being used to make albumin and being sold internationally. The CBC reports him as saying, “At this point, it’s only producing albumin. The plan is in the future it will also fractionate products. … And we don’t provide the specific numbers about this project, but, essentially, I think we are becoming a very solid partner with the health-care system in Canada.”
The CBS later confirmed that a deal to sell those byproducts was reached in February. Which is convenient because a month earlier they said it was being destroyed. However they wouldn’t disclose how much money they were making off the deal. The sales of Canadian donated plasma is a clear violation of what Canadians were told the agreement was signed in 2022.
I took the time to write our Minister of Health Marjorie Michel, I hope you will as well. We’ve already had enough controversy with the CBS, it’s time for some transparency.