Grifols was given Health Canada approval last year to operate two clinics in Toronto, with deaths at a facility that company runs in Manitoba, Nickel Belt MPP and health critic calls on the province to pull the firm’s licence to operate in Ontario
Nickel Belt MPP and the NDP’s shadow health minister France Gélinas wants Ontario to cancel the licence of private plasma collection firm that operates in Ontario.
A report by CBC highlights how three people have died after selling their plasma at a for-profit collection centre in Winnipeg operated by the firm Grifols. Another patient of the same facility brought a lawsuit against Grifols last year alleging “non-reversible and permanent injuries” from the acute kidney injury caused by an equipment malfunction at the same site, a press release from Gélinas’ office states.
“The Krever Commission’s report into the tainted blood scandal of the 1980s concluded that blood should be treated as a public resource, not a commodity. Donors should not be paid for blood donations,” said Gélinas in a news release. “When there is profit to be made, people cut corners and patients can get hurt or killed. Ontario’s Premier needs to act now to enforce Ontario’s Voluntary Blood Donations Act and cancel Grifols’ licenses to operate in Ontario.
“There is a cost-of-living crisis in Ontario, and desperate people may lose their lives to make a dollar selling their plasma.”
The release from the MPP’s office contends a 2022 partnership between Canadian Blood Services (CBS) and Grifols “created a loophole” that allowed the Spanish company to pay donors in Ontario for their plasma.
As reported by Toronto Today, facing a shortage of blood plasma donations spurred by the pandemic, Canadian Blood Services — which has an exemption to the paid plasma ban — entered into an agreement with Grifols in 2022, allowing the company to serve as its “agent” in Canada and face no barrier to paying individuals for their plasma.
But while Canadian Blood Services is permitted by Health Canada to extract plasma from any individual a maximum of 52 times per year, the federal health department agreed in 2019 to double that rate for Grifols — permitting the company to conduct up to 104 plasma draws per person annually.
This means Grifols’ clients can be paid to sell their plasma multiple times each week, a rate that would not be allowed at Canadian Blood Services’ donation facilities.
A recent meta study found that twice-weekly plasma collection can cause negative health impacts for donors, including impacting an individual’s levels of immunoglobulin, an infection-fighting antibody, and potentially leading to iron deficiency.
The full agreement between Canadian Blood Services and Grifols has never been publicly released. However, in January, Health Canada shared new details with TorontoToday about the company’s operating guidelines, including its maximum permitted plasma draw frequencies.
Highlighting a doctor quoted in the CBC story, Gélinas said the rarity of a death associated with donating plasma should raise eyebrows about injecting a profit motive into health care.
“According to a hematologist’s quote in the story, ‘the probability of someone getting very seriously harmed by donating plasma is like getting struck by lightning’,” Gélinas said in the news release. “But this lightning has struck three times at Grifols plasma centers in Winnipeg in less than a year. This is what happens when the profit motive affects care.”
-with files from Gabe Oatley, Toronto Today