RESPONSE from Government of Canada to Petition in protest of Plasma for-profit - - (BACKGROUND below . . . ) - - - - -
From: Petitions
Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2016 4:04 PM
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This is to inform you that a government response to petition e-126, which you signed on the e-petitions website of the House of Commons, was tabled on August 17, 2016. You can view the response online, on the e-petitions website, at [
https://petitions.parl.gc.ca/en/Petitio ... tion=e-126 ].
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e-126 (Health care services) - 42nd ParliamentInitiated by Kat Lanteigne from Toronto, Ontario, on January 18, 2016, at 3:05 p.m. (EDT)
keywords: Blood, Plasma centres, Private sector,
Government Response Tabled
Petition details
Petition to the Government of Canada
Whereas:
•Over 30,000 Canadians were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C via tainted blood in Canada, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Canadians and harming countless families;
•Canada spent $17 million dollars on a publicly-funded federal inquiry which revealed that the paid-donor system was a key factor contributing to Canadians receiving tainted blood;
•Billions of dollars in compensation have been given to those who received tainted blood and their families due, in part, to Canada's former reliance on blood from paid donors;
•The Krever Inquiry recommended an end to a private, for-profit blood donor system in Canada, citing these five basic principles regarding how the blood system should be governed: 1. Blood is a public resource; 2. Donors should not be paid; 3. Sufficient blood should be collected so that importation from other countries is unnecessary; 4. Access to blood and blood products should be free and universal; and 5. Safety of the blood supply system is paramount;
•Our blood plasma is not meant to be a commodity that is bought and sold, we must protect our voluntary blood system in Canada and ensure we have one national operator, the Canadian Blood Services, to oversee blood collection and plasma collection in our country.
We, the undersigned,
residents of Canada, request (or call upon) the
Government of Canada to:
- Refuse to issue or approve any license to Canadian Plasma Resources or other private, for-profit, donor-paid blood products company to operate in Canada; and
- Implement legislation that ensures no for-profit, donor-paid blood donor clinics are allowed to operate in Canada.
Sponsor: Don Davies, Vancouver Kingsway, NDP, British Columbia
Government response - Petition presented to the House of Commons on June 16, 2016Government response tabled on August 17, 2016 • 9 421-00533_HC_E.pdf ]
[
http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/HOC/ePeti ... 3_HC_E.pdf ]
History Open for signature : January 18, 2016, at 3:05 p.m. (EDT)
Closed for signature : May 17, 2016, at 3:05 p.m. (EDT)
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RESPONSE TO PETITION NO.: 421-00533[
http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/HOC/ePeti ... 3_HC_E.pdf ]
Prepare in English and French marking ‘Original Text’ or ‘Translation’
BY: MR. DAVIES (VANCOUVER KINGSWAY)
DATE: JUNE 16, 2016
PRINT NAME OF SIGNATORY: HONOURABLE JANE PHILPOTT - Response by the Minister of Health
SIGNATURE - Minister or Parliamentary Secretary
SUBJECT - Health Care Services
ORIGINAL TEXT - REPLY The Government of Canada recognizes that some Canadians have concerns regarding the issue of paying donors for plasma, much of which stems from the painful impact of the tainted blood tragedy of the 1980s. Fortunately, regulatory oversight and technology have evolved significantly and plasma products used in Canada now have an excellent safety record.
Canada has one of the safest blood systems in the world thanks to its comprehensive regulatory oversight of the collection of blood and plasma. As the federal regulator, Health Canada is responsible for ensuring the safety of Canada’s blood supply for transfusion, as well as its supply of plasma for further manufacturing into plasma products. The Department takes this role very seriously.
The issuance of establishment licenses by Health Canada to companies that collect plasma or other blood components is based on a scientific evaluation that focuses on the safety of the companies’ procedures. Health Canada’s review of any establishment licence application is based on sound science and will put the safety of Canadians first.
The decision as to whether Canadian plasma donors can be paid rests with the provincial and territorial governments, and different jurisdictions have taken different approaches. Payment for plasma is not a new practice and is legally permitted in all provinces and territories, except for in Ontario and Québec. For example, a company in Winnipeg has been operating safely and paying donors for plasma for 30 years. The plasma collected from paid donors is used exclusively for plasma product manufacturing, and never enters into the blood for transfusion systems.
Canada is self-sufficient regarding plasma used for transfusion, relying 100 percent on volunteer donations from Canadian Blood Services and Héma-Québec. However, Canada does not collect enough plasma to be self-sufficient in meeting the demand for life-saving plasma products, the need for which continues to grow. Therefore, some products, such as life-saving immune globulins, are purchased from manufacturers that use U.S.-sourced plasma, which is mostly obtained from paid donors. In fact, approximately 70 percent of the immune globulin products available in Canada are made in whole or in part from plasma from U.S.-paid donors.
To this end, patient groups, including the National Chapter of the Canadian Hemophilia Society and the Canadian Organization for Rare Diseases, have expressed their support for a paid plasma model and have stated that the supply of plasma-derived products from both paid and non-paid sources is essential to the health of thousands of Canadians.
The recommendations of the Krever Commission were key factors in shaping the structure of Canada’s current blood supply system, and in making it one of the safest in the world. While Justice Krever recommended that “significant efforts be made to ensure that blood components and blood products used in Canada be made from the blood and plasma collected from unpaid donors,” he recognized that for some products, “it may be necessary to offer compensation to these persons for their time and effort in order to attract a sufficient number of donors.” Justice Krever also emphasized the need to become self-sufficient in plasma, and to reduce reliance on the U.S. as a source of plasma.
Almost 20 years have passed since the issuance of the Krever Report. While the lessons of the tainted blood crisis must never be forgotten, actions have since been taken to prevent such a tragedy from happening again. Technological advancements have made plasma products extremely safe. New measures, such as heat treatment, filtration, and chemical treatment to inactivate viruses or remove other contaminants, have been put into place in addition to the rigid donor screening and testing requirements used when producing products from plasma. With the introduction of these safety measures, there have been no cases of hepatitis or HIV transmission from a plasma product in Canada in the last 25 years.
Canadian Blood Services have issued a recent statement on payment for plasma donation, which affirms that the drugs made from the plasma of paid donors are just as safe as those made from the plasma of volunteer donors, and that a paid plasma market is essential for ensuring enough supply of the lifesaving therapies Canadians need. As also identified in the statement, there is no evidence that paying plasma donors compromises the safety of, or weakens, a country’s volunteer blood donor system. The experiences of other countries suggest that both paid and voluntary plasma donation can safely coexist.
Health Canada is committed to safeguarding Canada’s plasma and blood supply systems, ensuring that all establishments that collect plasma for blood products are only licensed following a comprehensive evidence-based review and on-site inspection where product safety is held as paramount, that they are strictly regulated and in compliance with the Food and Drugs Act and its Regulations, and that plasma products sold in Canada are manufactured in accordance with our strict safety standards, regardless of where the plasma comes from, and whether donors were compensated.
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Signatures (1739): Province / Territory - SignaturesAlberta - 97
British Columbia - 358
Manitoba - 17
New Brunswick - 27
Newfoundland and Labrador - 8
Northwest Territories - 10
Nova Scotia - 108
Ontario - 965
Prince Edward Island - 13
Quebec - 36
Saskatchewan - 88
Yukon - 1
Other Countries - 11
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BACKGROUND:
PLASMA MYTH BUSTER - Canadian Health Coalition (CHC) Fact Sheet - April 2016[
http://healthcoalition.ca/wp-content/up ... gn-rev.pdf ]
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