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Conservatives call for investigation of Spanish drugmaker’s use of Canadian-donated blood plasma
CHRIS HANNAY
PUBLISHED 3 HOURS AGOUPDATED 2 HOURS AGO
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The Grifols headquarters in Barcelona in 2023. A Globe and Mail investigation found Canadian Blood Services is selling some blood components to the Spanish drugmaker to manufacture a product called albumin.DAVID ZORRAKINO/REUTERS
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Conservative MPsare calling for a parliamentary investigation into Spanish drugmaker Grifols’s GIFOF use of Canadian-donated blood plasma to make medicines for sale abroad.
The call follows a Globe and Mail investigation that found Canadian Blood Services is selling some blood components to Grifols to manufacture a product called albumin, as part of a complex arrangement between the international pharmaceutical company and the Canadian charity to collect and process blood plasma.
Plasma is a straw-coloured fluid in blood used for transfusions and to make therapies such as immunoglobulin, commonly used for people with immune disorders. Both CBS and Grifols collect plasma at donation centres across Canada, and Grifols pays donors while CBS does not.
Hamilton rebukes Canadian Blood Services, Grifols over paying for blood plasma donations
In a letter sent Wednesday to House of Commons health committee chair Hedy Fry, six Conservative MPs called the details in the story “troubling.”
The letter also references the fact that the private-equity arm of Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. BAM-T explored a bid to buy Grifols last year. At the time of the bid, Mark Carney was chair of the board of Brookfield, one of the world’s largest asset managers, but he stepped down in January to pursue the leadership of the Liberal Party and ultimately became Prime Minister. Brookfield said in April it had dropped its bid for Grifols.
“We urge you to recall the Standing Committee on Health to investigate both the use of Canadian-donated plasma by Grifols and the potential conflicts of interest arising from the Prime Minister’s investments in Brookfield Asset Management, given its attempts to acquire Grifols,” wrote the letter’s signatories, including Conservative shadow health minister Dan Mazier.
“Canadians expect their donated blood plasma to save lives in Canada and not to be turned into profits for foreign companies or the Prime Minister.”
The Canadian Health Coalition, a progressive group that advocates for the public health care system, said it also supported the call for a parliamentary investigation.
“I think every member of Parliament deserves an explanation from Canadian Blood Services about the murky details of its agreement with Grifols,” said Steven Staples, the group’s national director of policy and advocacy.
CBS has had a lengthyassociation with Grifols. The Spanish drugmaker has been a long-time supplier of immunoglobulin and consulted with CBS on a national plasma-collection strategy before the agency announced a formal partnership in 2022.
Under the 15-year agreement, Grifols acts as CBS’s “agent” in Ontario, allowing the company to get around a legal ban on paying for plasma donations.
In a statement, Grifols said it is “proud of our pioneering, long-term agreement with Canadian Blood Services to help Canada reach self-sufficiency in immunoglobulins. We continue to follow the agreement to the letter and deliver on our commitments.”
CBS said the partnership was necessary to boost the domestic supply of immunoglobulin, which has faced global shortages. CBS said it currently meets 27 per cent of its plasma needs domestically, compared with 15 per cent before 2022.
The agency said Grifols’s medicine being sold abroad is made from “byproducts” of the immunoglobulin manufacturing process, and the arrangement lowers the manufacturing cost to CBS.
Plasma therapies make up an enormous share of CBS’s annual budget. It spent $913-million on “plasma protein and related products” last year, according to its 2024 annual report, about 60 per cent of its expenses that year. Nearly all of its revenue comes from provincial and territorial governments. |
