British Columbia will not allow an international pharmaceutical company to collect blood plasma in the province, despite Canadian Blood Services’ attempts to get the private company past a provincial ban.
At the time of the announcement, CBS and Grifols said the company planned to set up in Ontario and B.C., despite the bans on paid donation, because the laws contained exemptions for CBS to pay donors in emergencies. However, it had not yet been tested whether CBS’s exemption would extend to Grifols on a continuing basis.
Grifols said it is still working with CBS to determine where its centres will be located. “We can confirm, however, that there are no plans for British Columbia at this time,” the company said in an unsigned e-mail. Paying for blood donations is controversial because the practice was blamed as a cause of the tainted blood scandal, in which thousands of Canadians in the 1980s caught HIV and hepatitis C from donated blood. Canadian Blood Services was set up in response to the scandal.
BCGovhatesvampires
I have a blood donor card with 100 donations on it. Roughly 75 of them were for plasma. Nineteen years ago, I ruptured my esophagus, and needed blood, AND plasma. I don't care how we get our plasma, if paying people for it makes it more available, let's make it happen.
Anything Dix says should be taken with a grain of salt. He is, after all, the ONLY Health Minister in Canada who hasn't legislated cigarettes out of BC drugstores. All other provinces have done so, including the last one, Manitoba, which did it way back in 2013. Zero Credibility!
Yep, why pay people to donate when they won't do it for free...
GOOD