BC’s Health Minister is rebuffing a call for the province to ban the use of paying people for donating blood. “We have no plan to legislate against the use of paid donors for plasma products in B.C.” Terry Lake says some people seem to think the practice is immoral but they don’t understand that the […]
A protest calling for a ban on paid blood and plasma donations in B.C. took place on the steps of the B.C. Legislature this afternoon. Survivors of the tainted blood tragedy were in Victoria with the BC Health Coalition to meet with provincial leaders. They want to make sure the B.C. government doesn’t allow a […]
NDP health critic Don Davies is calling on Health Minister Jane Philpott to close the country’s first paid-donor blood clinic in Saskatoon. “Blood must always be considered a public resource, not a private one for exploitation and profit,” Davies told reporters in Ottawa Monday. Canadian Plasma Resources opened its doors on Feb. 18 and plans […]
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 plasma is used for manufacturing drugs known as plasma protein products. The most controversial part is that CPR pays people who donate. The practice was banned […]
A controversial new plasma collecting facility in Saskatoon has officially opened its doors. The state-of-the-art facility is being met with both criticism regarding safety and kudos from patient groups. Tens of thousands of patients across the country are estimated to rely on medicines manufactured from human plasma, one of the major components of blood. Read […]
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. Here are 10 things to know about the pay-for-plasma landscape in Canada (…) This is a business […]
The question of blood-system safety remains a flashpoint in Canada, two decades after the “tainted blood” scandal of the late ’80s and early ’90s. More than 20,000 Canadians became infected with HIV and hepatitis C due to improperly screened blood and plasma from paid donors in Haiti and American skid rows. The tragedy led to […]
Health Canada says private clinics may pay donors for plasma, but critics wonder what is behind the push for a major change in policy. (…) Was this the promised public consultation about whether Canadians are okay with the idea that a human blood fluid can be bought and sold? “It wasn’t public, it was a closed […]
A company that pays people for blood donation is trying to open a clinic in Moncton. CPR is aiming to open ten clinics across the country in the next few years. The company has been stopped in Ontario and Quebec with laws that ban payment for blood donations but it’s getting a warm reception in […]
In November of 2012, Expharma/Canadian Plasma Resources applied for licenses for two plasma collection facilities to be opened in Toronto. At this time, only Quebec had legislation banning payment of donors for blood. With the threat of paid plasma clinics imminent, the Ontario legislature unanimously passed The Voluntary Blood Donations Act in December 2014. This […]
In the early 1980s, more than 2,000 Canadians who received blood transfusions were infected with HIV and as many as 30,000 contracted Hepatitis C. This tragic scandal, and the Krever Inquiry that followed, resulted in the overhaul of our blood donation system to ensure the safety of any blood products. This made Canada one of […]
This past week the co-founder of BloodWatch.org, Kat Lanteigne, was in Halifax as part of a cross-country educational tour. Lanteigne’s trip included a public event co-sponsored by the NS Health Network and Council of Canadians as well a press conference with the NS-NDP Health Critic, Dave Wilson. Lanteigne and Wilson urged the Premier Stephen McNeil […]
Canadian Blood Services, the agency that oversees the national supply of blood and blood products, says it wants to collect more plasma from Canadians, and CEO Graham Sher won’t rule out the contentious possibility of paying donors. Although Sher said he would prefer to expand plasma collection using voluntary donors, he said it’s not clear […]
Blood is becoming big business in Canada and Nova Scotian veins could be tapped next. The privately-owned Canadian Plasma Resources has met with provincial government officials in Nova Scotia about opening pay-for-plasma clinics in this province. Canadian Plasma Resources’ CEO confirmed to the NDP that the Liberal government is supportive of the idea. Dave Wilson, […]
There are times we think health care should be taken out of the hands of politicians, and placed in the hands of…well, that’s a problem, isn’t it. We could suggest doctors as the proper shepherds for our health system, but there aren’t enough of them and they should all be too busy. We could offer […]
A company that pays for plasma donations in Saskatchewan is hoping to open locations in the Maritimes, but some organizations argue Canada shouldn’t allow people to be compensated for donating blood products. Canadian Plasma Resources, which uses plasma in the production of pharmaceuticals, opened in Saskatoon in February. Its practice of giving people a $25 […]