Moncton pay-for-plasma clinic ready to recruit donors for inspection period

A controversial company that pays people for theirblood plasma is set to begin recruiting donors for a just-built New
Brunswick centre

Canadian Plasma Resources CEO Barzin Bahardoust says HealthCanada has reviewed and approved the processes at their new Monctoncollection centre, but inspectors still need to see it in operation before granting a licence.

"The inspectors have requested for us to start the recruitmentof donors, so when they do come in about another month, we wouldhave donors at the centre, and they can see the centre live basically," said Bahardoust.

He said the clinic will use social media to attract about 30 donors, startingMay 1, for the inspection period.

"Any units collected during this period, between the time that we open our doors to donors and up to the inspection date, will not be used for further manufacturing because basically establishment license has not been issued by Health Canada up to that point," he said.

Bahardoust said the company hopesto get approval by early June.

Health Canada confirmedFriday that Canadian Plasma applied last November to add the Moncton centre to its existing authorization and blood establishment licence and said the application is "under review and will include an inspection by Health Canada."

"The inspection verifies that the facility meets all of the safety requirements in areas such as donor screening, testing,
collection procedures, storage of collected plasma as well as quality management systems," it said in a statement.

All blood collected during the training and inspection period must be discarded or donated for research purposes.

Donors can give plasma as often as once a week, for which Canadian Plasma Resources will givethem either a charitable tax receiptor a gift card of between $25 and $100 per donation.

No price on medical donations

New Brunswick Green Leader David Coon says there shouldn't be a price for people making medical donations.

• Government won't ban paid-plasma clinics in N.B.

Ontario and Quebec don't allow pay-for-plasma clinics, and lastmonth Alberta passed legislation for a similar ban.

Canadian Plasma Resources operates a donation clinic inSaskatoon. It had two clinics in Ontario, but they were shuttered byprovincial legislation in 2014.

At the moment, blood plasma has to be shipped to either theUnited States or Europe for processing because there is nofractionation facility in Canada.

"We work with a German company that has facilities in Germany and the United States, but we will ship that plasma to Germany forfractionation," Bahardoust said.

He said a Korean company is building a fractionation facility in Montreal, but it won't be available for use until 2020at the earliest.

Bahardoust said the company hopes to sell the finished product toCanadian Blood Services and Hema-Quebec and will bid on tendersissued by each agency.

"Our goal is to strictly sell immune globuline in Canada," he said. "Canadais the largest importer of immune globuline globally. No one is morereliant on foreign sources than Canada."

Bahardoust said if the company doesn'twin those tenders, it will mostlikely sell in western Europe. However, he said prices there aresubstantially lower than in Canada and the cost to manufacture inCanada is high.

Not-for-profit system planned

Canadian Blood Services is pushing a plan to increase its ownplasma collection atas many as 40 new plasma collections sites by2024.

"Plasma, just like whole blood, is a public resource that mustbe safeguarded for Canadians," it said in a statement in January.

"Long-term security ... can only be achieved through increasedplasma collection by the publicly funded and publicly accountablenot-for-profit blood system operated by Canadian Blood Services."

Blood plasma is the yellowish fluid that remains after red andwhite blood cells and platelets are removed. Fresh plasma is usedfor transfusions, while processed plasma is turned into a variety ofpharmaceutical products.

The Moncton facility is expected to employ 30 full-time staff atfull production and eventually require about 2,500 regular donors.