Bill aims to end ban on sale of blood
Yao says shortage demands it, but critics fear blood product would leave Canada
A UCP backbencher has tabled a private member’s bill that would end the province’s ban on private companies selling blood or blood products such as plasma.
In 2017, the NDP government passed the Voluntary Blood Donations Act to keep private companies that pay individuals for providing blood or plasma out of the province.
UCP MLA Tany Yao’s bill, tabled in the legislative assembly this week, would repeal that law. Yao called that law “illogical” and said he put forward his bill because the Health Ministry was focused on larger issues.
“The truth of the matter is, we need to compensate people to get this very necessary product (plasma) and literally the five nations that allow for remuneration are providing 90 per cent of the global supply,” he said Thursday.
The demand for plasma — the liquid component of blood used in medications, including to treat people who are immunocompromised — has long exceeded the supply available through Canada’s voluntary donation system.
Canadian Blood Services estimates the amount of plasma it currently collects meets only about 1314 per cent of the need for immune globulin, one of the plasma protein products in highest demand. The rest is imported by Canadian Blood Services, including from the United States where people are allowed to sell their plasma, and distributed across Canada.
Alberta Health spokesman Tom Mcmillan said that in the 2018-19 fiscal year, Alberta’s portion of national spending on plasma products was $144.5 million.
Canada does not have consistent rules across the provinces when it comes to selling plasma. For-profit plasma clinics exist in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and New Brunswick, while the practice has been banned in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and, at least for now, Alberta.
NDP health critic David Shepherd said the NDP passed the ban in 2017 because they were concerned about the clinics elsewhere in Canada and some interest was beginning in Alberta.
“We do believe that it is going to be detrimental to our public system to have a parallel private system that would divert blood donations away from the public system,” he said Thursday.
Yao denies that allowing private companies into the market would decrease Canadian Blood Services’ supply.
He said other countries that allow companies to pay for blood have seen an increase in voluntary donations.
It’s a sentiment echoed by Barzin Bahardoust, the CEO of Canadian Plasma Resources, which runs paid plasma clinics in Saskatoon and Moncton.
“The positive effect is usually probably attributed to more awareness,” he said.
Bahardoust said his company would be open to starting a plasma facility in Calgary or Edmonton but denies he had immediate plans to start one in 2017 when he first spoke out against the NDP’S original bill.
Bahardoust said his company, which pays from $30 to $60 per donation of plasma, attracts different people than those who donate blood through Canadian Blood Services.
Donating plasma directly takes longer than donating blood, because the unused cells from after the plasma is collected are returned to the person’s body. That difference also means that people can donate plasma more frequently than they can donate blood.
“There’s very little overlap between the donor pools,” he said.
Shepherd said the focus should be on helping Canadian Blood Services increase its voluntary supply of plasma.
Canadian Blood Services is planning to open a voluntary plasma donation centre in Lethbridge this fall and already collects plasma in Calgary.
“Bringing private sales into Canada does nothing to address the Canadian shortage ... whoever else collects that plasma is under no obligation to keep that product here in Canada; they can sell that anywhere around the world,” Shepherd said.
None of the plasma collected by Bahardoust’s company in Canada is actually used in the country.
He said there are no Canadian facilities able to process the plasma into medications so it is sent to Germany.
The German processing plant does not have a contract with Canadian Blood Services for that medication.
For its part, Canadian Blood Services said it has concerns about Alberta lifting the ban on selling blood products.
In a written statement, spokeswoman Delphine Denis said the organization is aware of the bill and has expressed concern to the Alberta health minister and ministry “regarding any legislative changes that could impact the national blood system, before we have a broader dialogue in Canada with ministers of health.”
“We want to reach consensus on what is essentially a paradigm shift to national blood system principles and operations. We need to better understand implications and agree as a country how we should or could approach commercial, for-profit plasma collection in Canada, to ensure no unintended consequences,” she said.
“While we would not interfere with the legislative process, we do expect to be further consulted on the bill.”
Yao said he expects his private member’s bill to be reviewed by a committee starting next week.