{"id":549383,"date":"2026-03-20T17:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T17:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/549383\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T17:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T17:06:14","slug":"winnipeg-deaths-prompt-gelinas-to-call-for-end-for-profit-plasma-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/549383\/","title":{"rendered":"Winnipeg deaths prompt G\u00e9linas to call for end for-profit plasma collection"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s licence to operate in Ontario<\/p>\n

Nickel Belt MPP and the NDP\u2019s shadow health minister France G\u00e9linas wants Ontario to cancel the licence of private plasma collection firm that operates in Ontario.<\/p>\n

A report by CBC<\/a> 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 G\u00e9linas\u2019 office states.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Krever Commission\u2019s 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,\u201d said G\u00e9linas in a news release. \u201cWhen there is profit to be made, people cut corners and patients can get hurt or killed. Ontario\u2019s Premier needs to act now to enforce Ontario\u2019s Voluntary Blood Donations Act and cancel Grifols\u2019 licenses to operate in Ontario.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a cost-of-living crisis in Ontario, and desperate people may lose their lives to make a dollar selling their plasma.\u201d<\/p>\n

The release from the MPP\u2019s office contends a 2022 partnership between Canadian Blood Services (CBS) and Grifols \u201ccreated a loophole\u201d that allowed the Spanish company to pay donors in Ontario for their plasma.<\/p>\n

As reported by Toronto Today, facing a shortage of blood plasma donations spurred by the pandemic, Canadian Blood Services \u2014 which has an exemption to the paid plasma ban \u2014 entered into an agreement with Grifols in 2022, allowing the company to serve as its \u201cagent\u201d in Canada and face no barrier to paying individuals for their plasma.<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 permitting the company to conduct up to 104 plasma draws per person annually.<\/p>\n

This means Grifols\u2019 clients can be paid to sell their plasma multiple times each week, a rate that would not be allowed at Canadian Blood Services\u2019 donation facilities.<\/p>\n

A recent meta study found that twice-weekly plasma collection can cause negative health impacts<\/a> for donors, including impacting an individual\u2019s levels of immunoglobulin, an infection-fighting antibody, and potentially leading to iron deficiency.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s operating guidelines, including its maximum permitted plasma draw frequencies.<\/p>\n

Highlighting a doctor quoted in the CBC story, G\u00e9linas said the rarity of a death associated with donating plasma should raise eyebrows about injecting a profit motive into health care.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to a hematologist\u2019s quote in the story, \u2018the probability of someone getting very seriously harmed by donating plasma is like getting struck by lightning\u2019,\u201d G\u00e9linas said in the news release. \u201cBut 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

-with files from Gabe Oatley, Toronto Today<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grifols was given Health Canada approval last year to operate two clinics in Toronto, with deaths at a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,213706,22073],"class_list":["post-549383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-grifolsgrifols-adsgrifols-blood-plasmagrifols-financial-incentivesgrifols-plasma-donationgrifols-toronto-paid-plasma-donationgrifols-plasma-deathgrifols-donation-frequencygrifols-ad","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}