The City of Hamilton is a step away from becoming a “Paid-Plasma Free Zone,” seeking to stop private for-profit companies from operating blood collection centres across the municipality.
A motion from Mayor Andrea Horwath was backed by a public health committee Monday and specifically opposes a Canadian Blood Services (CBS) plan to allow Spanish pharmaceutical giant Grifols to open a clinic on Barton Street East.
Horwath submitted Krever Inquiry principles, from the 1980s tainted blood scandal, in her argument suggesting “free and universal access to blood components” and that “no one should be paid to donate blood or plasma” in the city.
She said for-pay plasma sites could be “predatory in nature” and take advantage of those “facing economic hardship” across the city.
“We have, I believe, a moral obligation here to do the right thing and to not have people selling a part of their body as a solution to poverty,” Horwath said.
Kat Lanteigne, executive director of BloodWatch.org, told the committee that her organization doesn’t believe the deal “serves Canadian patients” since a bag of plasma with “multiple blood components” could be shipped out of the country and used in other health portfolios Grifols profits from.
“There is no such thing as a single market in this business,” she argued.
“It does not exist. It is not how these pharmaceutical contracts are written. The premise that this Grifols deal will secure our blood supply is an absolute sham.”
More on Health
Christine Duncan-Wilson, the chair of Immunity Canada and a plasma product user, said the relationship has the potential to bump up the country’s plasma self-sufficiency and lessen its need to import from the global market.
Currently, CBS estimates Canada only produces about 13 per cent of the plasma it needs and that the Grifols partnership will aid a short-term goal of getting to 25 per cent domestic immunoglobulin sufficiency through 11 dedicated plasma donor centres over the next few years.
“I asked you to consider the perspectives of those affected stakeholders, like myself, before making any reactionary motions that would create barriers to access treatment,” Duncan-Wilson said.
“Not only for Hamiltonians like me, but potentially thousands of Canadians.”
In 2022, CBS, which operates the national blood system, revealed “a blueprint for action” responding to possible shortages of immunoglobulins – widely used to produce medications made from plasma, a component of blood.
In April, the agency addressed public concerns over commercial ‘paid plasma’ collections in a statement and defended its relationship with Grifols, saying it “complies with provincial legislation where it exists” and is exempt from remuneration legislation.
In Ontario, the Voluntary Blood Donations Act deliberately makes paying for blood or blood donations illegal, but it does contain exemptions for CBS.
“The agreement not only caps the number of sites Grifols can open, it also ensures that the plasma collected in Canada is used exclusively for patients in this country,” CBS said.
The agency said its actions, including private relationships, are in response to a global shortage of life-saving immunoglobulins and the plasma needed to make them.
“It also responds to Health Canada’s 2018 expert panel report recommendation that the commercial sector be leveraged so that all plasma collected in Canada—regardless of whether donors are paid—be used to treat patients in Canada,” the statement said.
Grifols was founded in the early 1900s in Barcelona, Spain, and has operations in more than 110 countries.
The company boasts the development of plasma-derived medicines that treat patients with chronic, rare and life-threatening conditions.
It has the largest network of donation centers in the world, with more than 390 across North America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and China.
Hamilton’s public health committee unanimously approved Horwath’s motion 13-0 on Monday afternoon.
It still requires ratification from city council, expected on June 13.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.