Faced with the decline in plasma donations in the country, the Canadian Blood Services let it be known that it was in discussion with private companies, which sometimes use “probably paid donors”.
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“We have started discussions with governments and plasma product manufacturers to find a solution to achieve plasma self-sufficiency of a minimum of 50% as soon as possible,” the organization said in a statement on Friday. .
Remember that plasma is used to make drugs, including immunoglobulins.
However, the amount of plasma collected by Canadian Blood Services only meets 15% of immunoglobulin needs.
“The other part, about 85%, is acquired from biologics companies that manufacture immunoglobulins from plasma that they collect themselves from probably paid donors,” explained the Canadian Blood Services.
Although the agency is therefore considering using these companies, it nevertheless recalled that the supply of blood “rests and will always rest on the generosity of unpaid donors” and that it had “no intention of sell or privatize part of our activities”.
Canadian Blood Services hopes to have a 100% Canadian blood supply system due to dwindling plasma supplies around the world. Blood donation has also experienced a significant decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Until then, in order to meet the needs of Canadian patients, the agency wants 50 to 60% of immunoglobulins to come from Canadian donor plasma.
To do this, five donor centers reserved for plasma collection have been opened and six more should follow by 2024. The infrastructures of existing centers have also been improved in order to collect more plasma.
“But this will not be enough and we must consider other ways to reach our goal,” said the organization, mentioning that this would only allow to collect 25% of the needs.
“The options considered must all include means of control which will make it possible to ensure, on the one hand, that the plasma collected in Canada will be used exclusively to manufacture immunoglobulins intended for Canadian patients and, on the other hand, that it there will be no repercussions, in the short or long term, on the collection network of the Canadian Blood Services”, it was added.