Health Canada assisted private plasma clinics, newly released documents say

A coalition of health advocates recently held a news conference on Parliament Hill to release more than 800 documentsshowing how Health Canada officials worked behind the scenes to change Canada's voluntary blood plasma donation system.

KatLanteigneofBloodWatchsaid the documents reveal that governmentofficials knew back in 2010 that they were helping to privatize part of the Canadianplasma sector. The officials knew they were opening up the Canadian plasma marketto a large multinational company, Biotech AG, which wasin partnership with asmaller company, Canadian Plasma Resources.

"They were actually trying to create a secondary plasma collector in this country and create an American-style model,"Lanteignesaid. "That's what was so shocking."

BloodWatch,a group advocating to preserve a completelyvoluntary blood donor system in Canada,obtained the documents under access to information laws.

The documents, includinginternal governmentemailsand minutes of meetings, showHealth Canada bureaucratsassisting in the launch of thenew business a chain of clinics that wouldharvest plasma from Canadians who would be paid.

• Paid plasma in Canada: 10 things to know about the businessof blood

The public first learned about the plans in 2013whenCBCNews reported that thefirst two clinics were preparing to open for business.

[The federal government]should have said, 'no thank you we have a public blood system here, we're not going to support a secondary operator,'" Lanteigne said.

When the Ontario government learned that three paid plasma clinics were poised to open in Toronto and Hamilton, the province passed a law banning them.

• Ontario moves to outlaw paid plasmadonations

But internal Health Canadaemailsreveal bureaucrats continued to work with the plasma company even while the Ontario debate unfolded.

At one point during the Ontario controversy, JimPimblett, the lobbyist for the plasma company, emailed a Health Canada bureaucrat to say that media reports were favourable to the company. In another document, Health Canada and the private plasma company agreed on the need to co-ordinate their responses to media questions.

Company plans 10 paid plasma centres

"I have no comment on the correspondence released under the access to information request," said Canadian Plasma Resources CEOBarzinBahardoust.

He toldCBCNews in an email that he still plans to open 10paid plasma centres across Canada along with a plasma processing facility. Right now the company haspaid clinics in SaskatoonandMoncton, N.B.

According to the Canadian Plasma Resources website, peoplecan be paid up to $50per donation.

• Saskatoon's pay-for-plasma clinic comes under fire

• Controversial for-profit plasma clinic now fully operational in Moncton

A previous access to informationrequest byBloodWatchturned up documentsshowing that Canada's national blood agency warned Health Canada that the private clinics might draw donors away from the voluntary system. The agency saysit has noticed a drop in voluntary blood donations in Saskatoon, where people can be paid for their plasma.

• Canadian Blood Services says paid plasma clinics are harming voluntary donations

BloodWatch, along with the Canadian Health Coalition and the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, released the documents in the foyer of the House of Commons on November 20to coincide with the 20thanniversary of theKreverCommission, as a reminder aboutCanada's troubled history of managing the blood supply.

The KreverCommission investigated Canada's tained blood scandal, after hundreds of Canadians were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C through blood transfusions in the 1980s.

• CBCdigital archives: TheKrevercommission

One of the key recommendations by Judge Horace Kreverat the timewas to "ensure that blood products used in Canada are made from the blood and plasma collected from unpaid donors."

The World Health Organization also recommends that donorsnot be paid.

Health Canada said in an email that it has appointed a panel of experts to study the sustainability of Canada's plasma supply. Most of the plasma used in Canada ismanufactured into pharmaceutical productsincluding albumin, clotting factors, and immune globulins (IGIV). Those products are processed using plasmacollected from donors in the U.S., who are paid.

As they read through the documents, the BloodWatch group said, they were surprised at the access the private clinic had to Health Canada officials.

"We have asked for years for meetings with Health Canada and meetings with the health minister and we have been denied every single time," Lanteigne said.