Health-care giant acquires Winnipeg plasma facility

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This article was published 06/01/2022 (1688 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A global health-care giant has chosen a decades-old centre near the University of Manitoba as its first Canadian plasma donation site.

Grifols Canada Therapeutics is taking over Prometic Plasma Resources at 137 Innovation Dr.

Grifols announced Tuesday it bought the centre from Italy-based Kedrion Biopharma for US$4 million.

Plasma donations won’t halt while ownership changes, according to a Grifols spokesperson.

“Grifols already had a relationship with the centre and is familiar with its high quality and safety standards,” the spokesperson wrote, adding that’s why it chose the location as its first Canadian donation hub.

The centre provides Grifols with anti-Rho(D) plasma, which the company uses to make plasma-derived medicines.

Volunteers may not notice major differences — Grifols is still deciding whether to change branding at Innovation Drive. The 30 beds for donors will remain the same. There are 30 staff on location.

People giving their plasma will still receive payment, though a Grifols spokesperson wouldn’t disclose how much.

“Specific remuneration depends on a number of factors,” they wrote.

The Spain-based health-care company announced an expansion into Canadian operations in 2020. It’s establishing production plants in Montreal, which should be running next year, according to a Grifols spokesperson.

Until then, Canadians’ plasma will be converted into medicine at the company’s U.S. sites.

More Canadian donation centres may be on the way, but it’s too soon to say, according to the Grifols spokesperson. The business has a network of over 350 centres globally.

It has fractionated Canadian plasma in U.S. plants for over 30 years. The plasma is then used in medicines treating life-threatening conditions like hemophilia, immune deficiencies and other blood disorders.

Plasma donors have their blood drawn and the plasma removed. The blood’s other components, including red and white blood cells, are returned to the body.

Liminal BioSciences used to own plasma collection centres, including Prometic Plasma Resources. On Oct. 15, it announced the finalized sale centres to Kedrion — part of a greater deal in which Kedrion acquired the Prometic life sciences business.

The European company got the Winnipeg donation site and another in Amherst, N.Y. It also acquired a plasma purification plant in Laval, Que., and the licence to distribute Ryplazim (which Prometic developed) in the United States. Ryplazim is the first FDA-approved treatment for congenital plasminogen deficiency, which can lead to blindness and respiratory failure, among other complications.

Kedrion did not respond to interview requests by print deadline.

“The Prometic deal brings more cutting-edge purification technology to our group,” Paolo Marcucci, Kedrion’s chairman, said in an Oct. 18 news release. “But most of all it allows us to reach long-suffering patients who until today have had no effective treatment for the often debilitating condition of Congenital Plasminogen Deficiency.”

Grifols said it will inform Health Canada and applicable Canadian authorities of its Winnipeg acquisition. It provides services in over 100 countries.

gabrielle.piche@freepress.mb.ca