SK - "BLOOD MONEY" - no place in public health care

[Oscar]

Private blood banks have no place in public health care: Council of Canadians

[ http://canadians.org/media/private-bloo ... -canadians ]

Media Release March 7, 2016

The Council of Canadians is calling on the federal government to deny the licence granted to Canadian Plasma Resources in Saskatchewan, and ban paid blood donations across the country.

“Paying for blood compromises the whole system, preys upon the vulnerable, and raises major safety and ethical issues,” says Michael Butler, health care campaigner with the Council of Canadians. “It also violates the five principles of Justice Krever's commission into Canada’s tainted blood scandal, which infected 30,000 people with HIV and hepatitis C.”

The Council of Canadians supports tainted blood survivors and safe blood advocates who are on Parliament Hill today to protest Health Canada’s approval of private blood donor clinics.

“Plasma must be treated as a public resource, not an opportunity for pharmaceutical industry profits,” adds Butler. “There is no reason jeopardize the safety and integrity of our voluntary blood system.” - 30-

Michael Butler,
Health Care Campaigner, The Council of Canadians
mbutler@canadians.org
C: 416-414-1684


More Info on HEALTH CARE:
[ http://canadians.org/healthcare ]

[Oscar]

Paid plasma in Canada: 10 things to know about the business of blood

[ http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/paid-plas ... -1.3480763 ]

Issue was raised in the House of Commons this week after a facility recently opened in Saskatoon

By Kelly Crowe, CBC News Posted: Mar 09, 2016 11:00 AM ET| Last Updated: Mar 09, 2016 11:00 AM ET

While blood looks red, its largest component is a clear, liquid gold known as plasma — what's left after red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and other components are removed. And it's worth a lot of money.

The issue of pay-for-plasma blood clinics was raised in the House of Commons this week after a facility opened up in Saskatoon. [ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon ... -1.3453062 ]

Health Minister Jane Philpott said she believes such clinics will help close the gap in Canada between supply and demand for plasma products. [ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon ... -1.3479654 ] But critics are concerned about ethical issues that come along with paying donors.

Here are 10 things to know about the pay-for-plasma landscape in Canada:

- - - - SNIP - - - -

1. This is a business story, not a health story.

2. There is no shortage of plasma in Canada.

3. There are two kinds of plasma.

4. The international plasma industry is highly competitive and profitable.

5. Canadians can't easily give away their plasma.

6. Plasma would be the first human material Canadians would be allowed to sell.

7. Paying for plasma won't lower the price of the processed plasma products for patients.

8. The plasma right now being collected in Saskatoon is not being used.

9. In permitting paid plasma donations, Canada will be the exception.

10. Canada appears destined to have a for-profit plasma industry, despite the debate.

Ontario introduced legislation to block the sale of plasma, [ http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/blood-don ... -1.2572496 ] but Canadian Plasma Resources simply moved its equipment to Saskatoon [ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon ... -1.3479654 ] and were welcomed with open arms by Saskatchewan's health minister, who participated in the clinic's grand opening. The company says several other provinces have given them the thumbs up to open clinics — both in the West and the East. And Canada's new federal health minister appears to be open to the possibility of a for-profit plasma industry. The idea of doing things differently, perhaps through a public, non-profit system, does not appear to have ever been on the agenda, even though Canada is one of the world's largest users of processed plasma products.

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RELATED:

■Shut down Saskatoon pay-for-plasma blood clinic, NDP urges health minister - Mar. 7, 2016
[ http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ndp-sas ... -1.3479121 ]

■Saskatoon's pay-for-plasma clinic comes under fire in House of Commons - Mar. 7, 2016
[ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon ... -1.3479654 ]

■Paying for blood plasma raises new questions - May 7, 2013
[ http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/paying-fo ... -1.1361316 ]

[Oscar]

Please take a moment and sign a petition to tell our government we will not have another tainted blood scandal:
[ http://bloodwatch.org/ ]

If you want a more in-depth anaylsis of the situation and the facts above please see:

Council of Canadians Health Campaign
[ http://canadians.org/healthcare ]

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Paid plasma myths and realities

[ http://canadians.org/blog/paid-plasma-m ... -realities ]

March 10, 2016 - 12:02 am

There are certain blogs you never think you are going to have to write. Earlier this week the Council of Canadians put out an evidence based analysis of the paid plasma clinic that recently opened in Saskatchewan and the mistakes from the past we are repeating. [ http://canadians.org/blog/blood-money-w ... od-scandal ]

Our health minister has been in the media this week attempting to justify her decision not to shut down this paid plasma clinic. [ http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/paid-plas ... -1.3480763 ] Unfortunately, many of these talking points seem to be incorrect and echo the statements made by big pharma and global plasma lobby (in fact the company in question Canadian Plasma Resources has been eagerly promoting her comments).

To disregards the lessons and legacy of those who died from the tainted blood scandal would be a major mistake. Here are some of the myths that need to be dispelled.

Myth: Paid Plasma Will Help Us Become Self-Sufficient

The plasma that Canadian Plasma Resources plans to collect is not going to remain in Canada and Canadian Blood Services has no plans to purchase the plasma harvested by this company. Further, there are no facilities in Canada to process the plasma collected and manufacture the subsequent pharmaceutical products; so Canadian Plasma Resources will be selling their plasma to the U.S. or other markets. What this is really about is making huge profits of citizens (generally off of the most vulnerable) as the plasma will be will be sold to major pharmaceutical companies and researchers. What we are doing is is opening the door to international blood laundering. The resulting IVIG drugs are worth more per gram than gold and are in the same ballpark per gram as heroine. This is the global plasma trade, and it has nothing to do with making Canada plasma self-sufficient. In fact, Canadian Blood Services has closed down plasma collection centres over the past few years. If Canada did need to collect more blood and plasma, there are ways to do this and Canadian Blood Services and the Federal Government have the tools to accomplish this.

Myth: This Is Absolutely Safe And There Is No Reason To Be Concerned

The health minister has stated that the Krever Commission into the tainted blood scandal took place over 20 years ago and there have been technological advancements, so we don’t have to worry. The Krever Commission strongly recommended against paid donations to prevent vulnerable people with diseases from selling their blood for money. A voluntary blood supply is deemed the safest and most reliable system of plasma and blood collection. The World Health Organization and the International Society of Blood Transfusion oppose payment fees for plasma donations. Going further, the World Health Organization wants all countries to move to unpaid donation systems by 2020 due to evidence based studies showing to volunteers having the lowest prevalence of blood-borne infections. Other organizations that that call for publicly-regulated, not-for-profit voluntary blood and plasma donation system include the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Society, the International Federation of Blood Donor Organizations and the European Blood Alliance. So in sum, pretty much every major evidence-based, international health organizations is against paid plasma for good reason.

In the tainted blood scandal we saw the same unfounded belief in our technological prowess that lead to over 60,000 people being infected with HIV and Hep-C, and thousands of deaths as a result. In plasma screening we lack the tests for many blood-borne infections, and especially emerging diseases (remember the tainted blood scandal). There is always a risk associated with harvesting plasma and the safest strategies are not test based but based on donor selection strategies. New threats will arise, that is a given.

How many of us had heard for the Zika virus, for example, prior to this year? When these outbreaks do occur they are not well understood, there are no diagnostic tests available, and there is no research available. Recently the US F.D.A told Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands to stop collecting blood and import it because of the Zika outbreak there. The New York Times reported that, “there is no F.D.A.-licensed test to screen blood donations for Zika virus,” and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) has stated, “the risk of Zika virus transmission through blood products is considered likely based on the most current scientific evidence of how Zika virus and similar viruses (flaviviruses) are spread.” There is also the Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is widespread and blood/plasma donors are often asymptomatic and recent analysis of blood and plasma donations has identified HEV-infected donors in Europe and USA. Consequently, HEV-RNA has been detected in plasma pools used for production of medicinal products. In 2000, Britain lost its entire plasma industry due to contamination with through the infectious agent of Mad Cow Disease (prions) and its new human variant, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) vCJD.

Myth: This Clinic is Safe

There is no way to effectively detect and control the mixing of unregulated batches of plasma products which Canadian Plasma Resources is intending to export, there is an increased risk of the spread of plasma-borne infections globally. The plasma needed for domestic uses that come from voluntary donations are smaller and safer. This is in contrast to the massive plasma pools the pharmaceutical industry and plasma monopoly use (what Canadian Plasma Sources will be selling to). Further, Health Canada rarely, if ever, conducts unannounced inspections of blood facilities in Canada. When there are inspections, they are announced to the blood operators weeks or months ahead and are done annually, if at that.

Myth: There Is A Rigid Donor Screening Program

Study after study has shown that when you add remuneration into the donation process people lie and the safety of the blood and plasma supply is jeopardized (it also leads to a decline in voluntary donations). This is an established fact. At the same time, the business model for for-profit plasma companies follows the predatory and inexcusable model that lead to the tainted blood scandal; time after time, they are set up to take advantage of people’s poverty (especially in regards to racialized communities). When they attempted to set up in Ontario, Canadian Plasma Resources set up one clinic beside a methadone clinic and another by a homeless shelter. Their business model is the same as their international counterparts. In their newly opened clinic in Saskatoon they are located, “on Quebec Avenue, which is a few blocks away from the predatory loans and pawn shops that are along Idylwyld." The high rates of poverty and blood borne illnesses in the inner-city of the west side of Saskatoon where the for-profit plasma clinic is operating is a major cause for concern (Saskatchewan has the highest rates of HIV and Hepatitis-C in Canada).

What is sadly being ignored is that the populations being targeted in Saskatoon include large numbers of Indigenous people who face significant, and additional, barriers to health and wellbeing. Saskatoon has the second highest percentage of Aboriginal residents of all major cities in Canada at just over 9% of the population, and this population is expected to increase. Unfortunately, over 45% of the Aboriginal peoples living in Saskatoon are living in poverty (below the Low Income Cut-Off) and likely in areas of highest deprivation where health inequities are most persistent. Yet, while First Nations and Metis account for about 16 per cent of Saskatchewan’s population, they represented about 80 per cent of all new cases of HIV diagnosed in 2011, and that “The incidence rate in our Aboriginal population is about 88 per 100,000 [population], which is 14 times the national average, on par with various African countries.”

Conclusion

The fact of the matter is the safety and viability of Canada’s blood and blood products supply is ultimately a federal responsibility. There is no justification for the government’s inaction which is resulting in a fundamental shift in policy that benefits the interests of plasma businesses at the public’s expense.

The government must deny the license to Canadian Plasma Resources, and any other companies that propose to pay donors for blood, plasma or other blood products. They must also immediately instruct Canadian Blood Services to develop a real strategy to increase unpaid plasma clinics in Canada and move toward self-sufficiency in plasma supply. We must ensure that the blood system moves towards more voluntary plasma collection which is in the public interest.

Allowing licenses to Canadian Plasma Resources has no benefit to Canadians and is all risk and no reward. Plasma must be treated as a public resources and health issue; trading body parts as a commodity to profit off of is morally corrupt. Too many people have fought too hard and too long to have the truth be ignored again just so the pharmaceutical industry can make a big profit by controlling this public resource. To make the surviving victims of the tainted blood scandal go through this trauma once again is unacceptable. There is no reason jeopardize the safety our voluntary blood system. We’ve been here before and know the outcome, so why is health minister Jane Philpott making the deadly mistakes of the past again?

Please take a moment and sign a petition to tell our government we will not have another tainted blood scandal:
[ http://bloodwatch.org/ ]

Michael Butler's blog
Health Campaigner for the Council of Canadians
[ http://canadians.org/blogs/michael-butler ]


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Regina chapter writes federal health minister about for-profit plasma donation clinics

[ http://canadians.org/blog/regina-chapte ... on-clinics ]

January 4, 2016 – 6:30 pm

The Council of Canadians Regina chapter has written federal health minister Jane Philpott asking her to oppose for-profit plasma donation clinics.

On Dec. 23, CBC reported, "Canadian Plasma Resources (CPR), a company that pays for plasma donations, is hoping to set up a shop in Saskatoon. It's controversial, and has some people raising concerns. The process CPR uses for plasma donation [is] a similar process to donating blood, but the cells are returned to the donor during the process, and only the plasma is taken. As a result, donors can give much more frequently than they can for blood donations — as often as once a week." [ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatche ... -1.3378382 ]

The article adds, "The most controversial part is that CPR pays people who donate. The practice was banned in Quebec and is about to be banned in Ontario. The company gives donors a $25 gift card for each donation. The gift card can be used almost anywhere a credit card can, but donors cannot withdraw cash from it, or transfer it into another person's name. ...The company is currently awaiting approval from Health Canada. [CPR CEO Barzin] Bahardoust said that if they open, they expect about half their donors to be students. ...[Dr. Ryan] Meili is also concerned that the company targets low-income people."

On Dec. 24, chapter activist Jim Elliott, a regular blood donor, wrote to Minister Philpott stating, "It has come to my attention that Canadian Plasma Resources is awaiting approval from Health Canada to allow them to pay for plasma donations. I believe this is fundamentally the wrong direction and a further erosion of the health services we pride ourselves in providing to the public of Canada."

He highlights in his letter, "Justice Horace Krever said that Canada should not pay donors for blood or plasma, except in rare circumstances. This is in line with the World Health Organization’s recommendation that all governments should strive for the safest process: using unpaid, voluntary blood and plasma donors. ...It would be my recommendation that this proposal by Canadian Plasma Resources be rejected on a number of reasons but principally it would put into jeopardy our valued blood services system. Voluntary donation of blood products is the cornerstone of a safe and adequate supply. We have to say no."

In a March 2013 campaign blog we noted, "The Harper government is considering an application from Canadian Plasma Resources to open for-profit blood donation clinics in Toronto and Hamilton where donors would be paid $20 for being hooked up to a plasma collection machine." [ http://canadians.org/node/9370 ]

By June 2013, we were able to report, "Last week, Council of Canadians’ chairperson Maude Barlow and numerous others dedicated to public health care signed an open letter on for-profit plasma clinics to Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq that was published in the Hill Times. [ http://canadians.org/content/profit-blo ... e-your-say ]

Yesterday, Minister Aglukkaq announced that the federal government would re-open a (limited) consultation process and allow the public to comment on for-profit blood collection." By November 2014, Canadian Plasma resources had withdrawn its plans to open up to ten plasma collection centres in Ontario cities after the Ontario government announced its intention to ban paid blood donations through Bill 21, the Safeguarding Health Care Integrity Act.

The CEO of Canadian Plasma Resources says if Health Canada approves their application his company could be open in Saskatchewan as early as this month.

Further reading

WIN! Company abandons plans to establish for-profit plasma clinics in Ontario (Nov. 25, 2014)
[ http://canadians.org/blog/win-company-a ... cs-ontario ]

Tags: chapters [ http://canadians.org/tags/chapters ]

Brent Patterson's blog,
Political Director of the Council of Canadians,
[ http://canadians.org/blogs/brent-patterson ]


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LISTEN: Critics worry Sask. for-profit plasma clinic could erode Canada's blood supply

[ http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the- ... -1.3429867 ]

Tuesday February 02, 2016

Money for blood can be a controversial practice anywhere in the world, but especially so in Canada. Yet Saskatchewan is set to open the first for-profit plasma donation clinic in the country.

The tainted blood scandal of the '80s looms large over the discussion of paid-for donations after upwards of 30,000 Canadians were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C after receiving tainted blood and plasma. And the federal inquiry that followed found that paid blood donations were in part to blame.

Since then the provinces of Ontario and Quebec moved to ban paid donations and there have been calls to put a federal ban in place. But Sask. says it's going ahead with a paid plasma clinic.

"It should be a unified, one-donor-system. We already pay Canadian blood services a billion dollars to ensure that we have integrity and supply in the system in Canada." - Mike McCarthy does not support paid-plasma donations in Canada

MORE:

[ http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the- ... -1.3429867 ]


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Liberals allow private, for-profit blood plasma clinic to open in Saskatoon

[ http://canadians.org/blog/liberals-allo ... -saskatoon ]

February 19, 2016 – 8:44 am

The Council of Canadians has been opposing Canadian Plasma Resources opening for-profit blood plasma donation clinics since March 2013.

Most recently, the Council of Canadians Regina chapter wrote federal health minister Jane Philpott asking her to oppose for-profit plasma donation clinics. On Dec. 24, 2015, chapter activist Jim Elliott, a regular blood donor, wrote to Minister Philpott stating, "It has come to my attention that Canadian Plasma Resources is awaiting approval from Health Canada to allow them to pay for plasma donations. I believe this is fundamentally the wrong direction and a further erosion of the health services we pride ourselves in providing to the public of Canada."

But now the Canadian Press reports, "Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott is fending off calls to close a private, for-profit plasma donor clinic in Saskatchewan... The federal NDP called on Ottawa to ban such clinics. ...The political exchange [in the House of Commons] came after Canadian Plasma Resources officially opened its doors Thursday [Feb. 18] in Saskatoon." [ http://saskatoon.ctvnews.ca/private-pla ... -1.2783812 ]

The company gives donors a $25 gift card (which can be used almost anywhere a credit card can be used) for each plasma donation, which can be made as often as once a week.

The news article adds, "Unions have been among those calling for the Saskatchewan government to ban such clinics. Ontario did so when Canadian Plasma Resources tried to set up there. The Canadian Union of Public Employees said earlier this month that human tissue should not be 'turned into a commodity to be bought and sold'. The Saskatchewan Federation of Labour said Thursday that the clinics 'present a number of moral, ethical and safety concerns'. Federation president Larry Hubich said in a news release that paying donors 'compromises the safety of plasma, creates competition with our voluntary blood system and does not create self-sufficiency for the country'."

And Global News notes, "Saskatoon doctor Ryan Meili says he has concerns paid donation will decrease voluntary donation and that donating long-term could can lead to health complications." [ http://globalnews.ca/news/2526746/contr ... saskatoon/ ]

In Dec. 2015, CBC reported, "Meili said the process is not without health risks. In the U.S. where donating plasma is common, regular donors report weakness, chronic headaches, and other problems Meili said. He wants blood and plasma donations run by a single organization, Canadian Blood Services, because he believes it will mean better oversight and regulations. Meili is also concerned that the company targets low-income people." [ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatche ... -1.3378382 ]

Federal health minister Jane Philpott has defended the for-profit clinic by stating, "We have examined this in great detail and have confirmed that we are approaching this matter looking at the science and making sure that there are no compromises to the safety of the blood system."

But in June 2013, Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow signed an open letter that stated, "Allowing Canadian Plamsa Resources to pay donors for plasma is a significant change in practice for our country with respect to blood and plasma collection. The Krever inquiry on the tainted blood scandals specifically called for voluntary donations in Canada to ensure that we have the safest possible blood system, and accommodated deviation from that process only when absolutely necessary (as is the case in Canada’s one paid plasma facility in Winnipeg)." [ http://canadians.org/content/profit-blo ... e-your-say ]

The letter also noted, "Although Health Canada is responsible for evaluating the safety and regulatory aspects of Canadian Plasma Resources, it has not examined the impact of these paid donation facilities on our voluntary blood and plasma donation system. ,,,[We ask for a] national, public consultations that create a real public policy review that allows all interested parties to contribute to decision-making on this matter."

Further reading

Regina chapter writes federal health minister about for-profit plasma donation clinics (Jan. 4, 2016)
[ http://canadians.org/blog/regina-chapte ... on-clinics ]

WIN! Company abandons plans to establish for-profit plasma clinics in Ontario (Nov. 25, 2014)
[ http://canadians.org/blog/win-company-a ... cs-ontario ]

Harper government considering application from for-profit blood donation clinic (March 28, 2013)
[ http://canadians.org/node/9407 ]

Tags: chapters
[ http://canadians.org/tags/chapters ]

Brent Patterson's blog
Political Director of the Council of Canadians
[ http://canadians.org/blogs/brent-patterson ]

[Oscar]

Tainted blood survivors, advocates, strongly oppose private, paid-for plasma clinic; urge Prime Minister Trudeau and Health Minister Jane Philpott to block Saskatchewan plan

[ http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/ta ... 12401.html ]

Jan. 22, 2016

TORONTO, Jan. 22, 2016 /CNW/ - Tainted blood survivors and safe-blood advocates who testified alongside Canadian Blood Services CEO, Dr. Graham Sher, to ban private plasma collection in Ontario are now alarmed that the same company is attempting to operate in Saskatchewan. The Ontario government shut down Canadian Plasma Resources in 2014 to prevent it from opening three private blood collection clinics in high-risk areas so that it might export plasma to world markets.

The existence of private blood collection clinics in Canada directly contravenes the key recommendations of Justice Horace Krever's landmark, federally-funded inquiry on how to safely manage the blood supply. Krever explicitly concluded that in Canada blood is a public resource, donors should not be paid, and safety of the blood system should be paramount. Creating a two-tiered collection system undermines the voluntary blood system by creating competition for donors. These findings came at the expense of more than 30,000 Canadians who became infected with HIV and hepatitis C due to systemic government and bureaucratic failings. The tainted blood crisis is Canada's largest health tragedy and has claimed the lives of thousands of Canadians with more dying each month.

"We are deeply concerned that the public is not being informed on the implications of private plasma collection in Canada. This would be a fundamental shift in our blood policy which is unacceptable after all of the lives we have lost due to previous government failures to protect our domestic blood supply," says tainted blood survivor and hemophiliac Michael McCarthy.

"There is a lot of misinformation being generated by a profit-motivated company that is in the trade of body parts. We are asking Prime Minister Trudeau and Health Minister Philpott to step in and not issue this company a license until a full transparent discussion can happen on how this could affect Canadians," said Kat Lanteigne, safe-blood advocate and writer of the theatrical production, “TAINTED".

The federal government, through Health Canada, has the authority to ban the practice of private blood collection across the country.

"Our prime minister cannot expect tainted blood survivors to stave off blood-brokers province by province. The proliferation of private blood clinics in Canada would compound a three-decade tragedy and shatter the efforts made by those brave Canadians who fought to make our blood system safer," said Lanteigne

The group has started an e-petition asking the federal government to have the private clinics banned across Canada.

Saskatchewan has the highest HIV and hepatitis C rates in the country.

SOURCE Kat Lanteigne

For further information: Kat Lanteigne, 647.272.7381, jimmydelaco@gmail.com

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Tainted-blood tragedy: Never again . . . Aug. 1997

[ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nat ... le1212055/ ]

ANNE McILROY and ANDRE PICARD OTTAWA — Globe and Mail Update Published Monday, Oct. 01, 2007 10:05PM EDT Last updated Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2012 4:09PM EDT

Canada needs a new blood system run by an independent authority with the mandate to put safety first, the money to do so and enough outside scrutiny to make sure the fatal errors that led to the tainted-blood tragedy are not repeated, Mr. Justice Horace Krever says.

Judge Krever released 50 recommendations yesterday for the blood system of the future, one in which those who make decisions that affect the health of Canadians will be accountable for their actions.

It appears that his blueprint can be easily blended with the new system the federal and provincial governments began designing in March, 1996. They went ahead because they were unwilling to delay much-needed reforms while they waited for his report.
"If you look at the recommendations, we are going in the right direction," Health Minister Allan Rock said. "I think there is much we have to learn from the report. We will take on board what is contained in the recommendations and to that extent we will improve the plans that are already in place."

Mr. Rock announced that the government will establish a Blood Safety Council to review all of Judge Krever's recommendations.
While the government has so far only sketched out what it views as the fundamental structure of a safe blood system, Judge Krever's report contains far more exacting detail on what must be put in place to prevent a repeat of the tainted-blood tragedy.

If his recommendations are followed, he says, "the likelihood that the tragedy will happen again will be markedly reduced."
The new system would replace the dysfunctional one that failed thousands of Canadians whose lives have been destroyed by tainted blood.

In the old system, the Canadian Red Cross Society was funded by the provinces to collect and distribute blood and blood products. The federal government was, and continues to be, responsible for regulating safety.

But nobody was really in charge and, as a result, 1,200 Canadians were infected with the virus that causes AIDS and an estimated 12,000 with the virus that causes hepatitis C.

A transition team is in place to set up a new, arm's-length agency, funded by the provinces, that will be in place no later than September, 1998. It will be called Canadian Blood Services.

Judge Krever says a public blood system, in which donors are not paid except in rare circumstances, must be maintained. He recommends that a national system for the collection and distribution of blood and blood products be run by a single, independent operator created by an act of Parliament.

Provincial and territorial health ministers should be members of the corporation, he says, but the federal government, which is responsible for regulating the safety of the blood system, should not be.

The new agency should be run by a board of directors, which cannot include any politicians or public servants, Judge Krever says, adding that the Red Cross should also have no role in the new system.

Although the new system must be integrated, he says, it does not need an expensive fractionation plant to separate the component parts of blood.

This is the same model that the federal and provincial governments had agreed on, although Quebec has opted out and says it will run its own system. (Mr. Rock said the federal government would continue to regulate the safety of the system in Quebec.)
But there are key differences between what Judge Krever recommends and what the federal and provinces have in mind, especially on the issue of funding.

At the moment, the provinces finance the blood system, and were planning to continue to do so.

But Judge Krever says history has shown that money was a key issue in the systemic failure that led to the tragedy of the 1980s and if a new national blood service is to respond to challenges to safety, "it must control its own budget."

So he suggests that the new national blood service should be funded by payments from hospitals for the blood and blood products they need.

Instead of directly funding the new agency, the provincial and territorial governments would increase the budgets of hospitals so they could pay for blood and blood products without affecting their other programs.

Prices would be fixed by the national blood service to cover costs but not to make a profit.

MORE:

[ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nat ... le1212055/ ]

[Oscar]

Blood Money! No place in our health care system

Published in the Wadena News on March 21, 2016

Recently, Premier Wall, aided by the previous federal government’s abdication of health regulations to the provinces, issued a business permit to Ontario-rejected Canadian Plasma Resources (CPR), allowing them to set up a donor-paid blood plasma shop, at $25 a pop, in Saskatoon.

There are no Canadian facilities to process the collected plasma into usable pharmaceutical products. CPR intends to sell the plasma onto the international blood-laundering market - where it is worth more per gram than gold. It will be added to massive unregulated global plasma pools used by the pharmaceutical industry and plasma monopoly at enormous profits and risk of the global spread of plasma-borne infections.

How is it possible that, only 20 years after Canada's tainted blood scandal, we are re-visiting that horrific event?

Some 30,000 Canadians became infected with HIV and Hepatitis C by way of tainted blood transfusions in Canada; thousands died and billions of dollars in compensation have been given to those harmed and to their families.

The $17 million Krever Inquiry revealed that a key factor in this disgrace was the paid-donor system and it recommended five basic principles in how blood system should be handled: blood is a public resource, donors should not be paid, sufficient blood should collected so that importation from other countries is unnecessary, access to blood and blood products should be free and universal, and the safety of the blood supply system is paramount. The World Health Organization, the International Society of Blood Transfusions, the Red Cross, the Red Crescent Society, the International Federation of Blood Donor Organizations and the European Blood Alliance all oppose payment fees for plasma donations.

Through the Canadian Blood Services, it is the federal government's responsibility for the safety of Canada's blood and blood products supply and there can be no justification for the present Government's inaction in allowing CPR to continue operation while presenting extreme risk to the public health.

Therefore, we – you and I - must call upon Health Minister Philpott and the Government of Canada, and insist that legislation be immediately put into place to correct this deadly mistake and end our insane participation in this global plasma trade - before current plans to expand into other provinces become a reality - regardless of the results of the April 4 election!

Elaine Hughes
ARCHERWILL, SK

[Oscar]

Commentary - People need to send Canadian Plasma Resources packing

By Kat Lanteigne Wadena News March 28, 2016

There is a fire starting to burn in Saskatchewan and the flames are laced with the tragic past of our country’s worst preventable health disaster – the tainted blood crisis.

Thirty thousand people were infected with HIV and 2000 with hepatitis C because the Red Cross, Health Canada, the federal government and the provinces combined did not protect the Canadian blood system. It is a Canadian story filled with heartache, grief, unimaginable loss, and corruption at the highest levels of government.

It is also a story about why private blood collection does not work in Canada and why we must avoid it at all costs. This is all painstakingly documented in the landmark Krever Inquiry.

Why is this horrific part of our recent Canadian past so important today? Well, private blood brokers have set up in Saskatoon to pay people for their plasma. Canadian Plasma Resources (CPR) was just banned in Ontario and I was on the front lines opposing them. While in Ontario they proposed paying people for their plasma and selling it on the world market to make a profit.

Apparently, now they are saying that they will only collect Canadian plasma, export it out of Saskatchewan, untested, to a facility in Texas for testing, and then ship it to a company in the U.S. or Europe to turn it into a medication, and then Canadian Blood Services will buy it back. The company has changed its plan so many times it is hard to keep track.

The alarming part of either scenario is that both create a risk to our blood system that is not worth taking. The first scenario means that we lose, to export, plasma that we need to save Canadian lives. The second scenario means that the medication that will be “batch-made” on our behalf will be done by a private for-profit company whose sole objective is to make money. Canadian Blood Services (CBS) already batch-makes plasma-based medication for our use.

CBS protects the donor, oversees the testing and has contracts with vetted fractionators in the U.S. Allowing plasma collection to exist for the sole purpose of profits is irresponsible.

This is not a debate about science.

This is a debate about whether or not we want private companies to take control over a resource that saves lives. Don’t be fooled about the difference between donating blood and plasma – a donor is a donor and we cannot afford to lose any donors to a private model. CBS has just asked for 16,000 new donors, in Alberta alone, to fill our domestic needs.

The plasma that Canadian Blood Services collects is guaranteed to save the life of a Canadian; that same guarantee cannot be made by a private blood broker. Once that plasma leaves the country under a private model, we have no way of tracking it. CPR keeps parroting the phrase, “We get 80% of our plasma from the U.S.,” but, to clarify, we are self-sufficient in plasma for transfusion; however, we do buy medications that use plasma as a derivative from partially paid plasma. This is not ideal but it was always going to take us time to become more self-sufficient.

The point: public health agencies around the world, including the World Health Organization and the International Federation of the Red Cross, are working to end all paid plasma because it is a proven fact that voluntary donations are safer.

Too many people go to get paid for their plasma because they need the money. When the profit motive took precedent over our public blood system in Canada, we had calamitous results. Just because we have not killed anyone in 23 years with blood products or infected someone with a deadly virus is no excuse to deregulate our public blood system.

The existence of a private blood broker does nothing to help us become more self-sufficient. Our self-sufficiency is meant to come from a public model where our national blood agency has oversight over the point of collection and the testing.

What it does do is make big profits for a company – off of our human tissue.

The company has already stated that the medication they dream of making will not be any cheaper than what we purchase now. So who exactly is benefitting from this? It certainly isn’t the Canadian people.

This is not a campaign against profits. It is a campaign to protect the integrity of our Canadian blood system. It is estimated that more than 8000 people will die in Canada because of tainted blood; the number is so staggering that it is hard to reconcile.
I don’t know anything about the politics in Saskatchewan but I know a bit about the people. I lived in Uranium City as a young girl when the forest fires threatened the town. Everyone mobilized to help save their fellow citizen and protect their town.

Tainted blood survivors and their family members need you right now.

The fire is raging and with many too sick to fight, we need you to pick up a shovel and send Canadian Plasma Resources packing.

Kat Lanteigne is a safe-blood advocate and co-founder of BloodWatch.org.