A private blood broker in Canada is a competitor to Canadian Blood Services.
Think about it…why would we ever buy our own blood plasma back from a private blood broker when we can collect it through Canadian Blood Services and pick our own fractionator?
A fractionator is a biotech facility that turns the blood plasma collected by CBS into a medication for Canadians.
There is no way for a private collector to fractionate the plasma they collect in Canada. Therefore, they must export the plasma out of the country.
Once plasma leaves Canada under a private model there is no way to know whether it will come back to Canada. In fact, it cannot be determined whether the plasma-based medications that we are buying back are made from the blood collected in Canada.
In short – we are facing an active privatization of our public blood system created by partitioning off plasma collection to the private sector – without any guarantee we can use it.
CEO of Canadian Blood Services explains:
“When our plasma goes down to one of those two facilities in the US or Europe, our plasma is segregated, manufactured separately. The finished drugs are labeled “For Canadian Blood Services Use Only” and shipped back to us. Then the plant goes through purification and cleaning process, following which any other provider’s plasma goes through. There is no admixing of our plasma with the paid commercial plasma industry. That is true so that we can then assure ourselves that the product is coming from the plasma that we provide.” – Queen’s Park Testimony Supporting the Voluntary Blood Donations Act – 2014