A health care company that pays people for their blood plasma is pausing operations in Canada months after two donors died in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
The deaths, last October and in January, brought the scrutiny of Canada’s health regulator, politicians and the public toward Grifols, a Spanish company that operates Canada’s only for-profit plasma collection business at 17 clinics.
On Thursday, the company described that scrutiny as unwarranted and a reason for its move to stop collecting plasma in Canada temporarily.
“In light of the unfounded attention that has been focused on compensated plasma collection, Grifols has proactively and voluntarily decided to pause plasma collection activities,” the company said in an emailed statement. The pause goes into effect on Friday.
The company informed Health Canada, a federal department, of its decision on Wednesday, the same day that the regulator issued Grifols a notice that it had failed to meet compliance standards at a Winnipeg clinic.
“Canadians’ safety must always come first, and we welcome Grifols’s decision,” Emilie Gauduchon-Campbell, a spokeswoman for the health minister, said in a statement, adding that regulators found “several compliance concerns.”
Grifols has been operating its for-profit clinics in Canada since 2022, when it entered into an agreement with the Canadian Blood Services, the nonprofit group that manages the country’s blood supply, to increase the sourcing of plasma.
Some people rely on the extra money they make from donating plasma, which can be around 100 Canadian dollars per week, about $72. Grifols advertises that donors can earn up to 6,000 Canadian dollars, or about $4,400, each year. Plasma donation is considered safe and deaths are rare.
People can donate plasma more frequently than blood because after a donor’s blood is drawn, the plasma, a light yellow liquid, is separated from red blood cells, which are then transfused back into the donor. Rich in antibodies, plasma is an important ingredient in treatments for many rare conditions and chronic illnesses, and it is seeing a booming demand.
Grifols, which operates about 400 plasma collection clinics around the world, said it would resume operations in Canada after arriving at a “framework” with Health Canada and the Canadian Blood Services to support a “sustainable and robust plasma collection network” there, the company said in a statement.
Of the two people who died, only one, Rodiyat Alabede, a 22-year-old international student, has been identified by friends and family members. Ms. Alabede, who was studying to become a social worker, became unresponsive during her plasma donation in October and died soon after, according to Manitoba’s coroner.
In March, Grifols said it did not believe there was a link between Ms. Alabede’s death and the plasma withdrawal procedure.
Private operators looking to collect plasma in exchange for cash incentives were previously strongly opposed by the Canadian Blood Services, which was concerned that the plasma would be sold abroad, rather than being used to benefit patients in Canada.
Europe relies heavily on imported plasma products, in part because of regulations adopted by the European Union that say blood product donations should be unpaid.
