Ban paid plasma and end Grifols contract, say health care advocates

Health coalitions from across Canada are demanding that Health Canada, Canadian Blood Services and provincial governments take immediate action to end Grifols’ authorization to collect plasma in Canada and to disclose the Canadian Blood Services contract with Grifols. They also want provinces to prohibit paid and for-profit blood products collection.

Watch today’s press conference here:

Advocates are reacting to testimony at the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health (HESA) on March 26 where Grifols Canada’s Mary Hughes, Vice-President, Sales and Commercial Operations, took questions regarding two deaths at the company’s collection centres.

“Grifols’ official failed to fully answer questions, or take responsibility for what happened to these unfortunate plasma donors. The logical response for Manitoba is to shut down their operations, investigate the deaths, and legislate the end of paid plasma donations like other provinces have done,” says Noah Schulz of the Manitoba Health Coalition. “Private for profit pay-for-plasma should not be allowed anywhere in Canada – it’s just too risky.”

Grifols has operated for-profit paid plasma centres in Canada in 3.5 years. In that time, Grifols facilities have been found non-compliant more times than all other blood products collection centres in Canada combined in the last fourteen years. Deaths related to plasma collection are extremely rare.

Deaths related to plasma collection are extremely rare. The deaths at Grifols’ facilities in Canada, combined with the gravity and frequency of their non-compliance issues, demonstrate a need for immediate action.

The Grifols Canada’s official carefully parsed testimony to Parliament left more questions than answers, after initially declining to appear.

“Grifols footdragged and showed lack of transparency about procedures when questioned by elected representatives and lawmakers,” says Siobhán Vipond, Vice Chairperson of the Canadian Health Coalition. “The families of the dead deserve better. Donors who are often struggling financially, and sell their plasma because they need money, should not have their lives put at risk.”

After Hughes’ testimony, health committee members unanimously passed a motion ordering Canadian Blood Services, the public non-profit blood agency that contracted with Grifols in 2022, to hand over its secret exclusive 15-year contract with Grifols no later than April 10.

In summary, health coalitions are demanding:

• Health Canada, Canadian Blood Services and provincial governments take immediate action to end Grifols’ authorization to collect plasma in Canada. Health Canada must end any licensing or equivalent approvals for Grifols to collect plasma.
• Provincial governments that have allowed Grifols to set up for-profit plasma centres prohibit paid and for-profit blood products collection.
• Health Canada release detailed inspection reports, including adverse events, and provide public information on whether all Grifols centres have been inspected since they started operation.
• A judicial inquiry into the tragic deaths in Winnipeg, Manitoba which would result in an investigation independent of Health Canada and Canadian Blood Services.
• Health Canada and Canadian Blood Services disclose the frequency with which Grifols was harvesting paid plasma from the people who have died.
• Canadian Blood Services and Grifols comply with the directive of the Standing Committee on Health and disclose the contract CBS with Grifols, the terms of which have been kept secret to date, and end the contract.