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Pay-for-plasma clinic to open in Cambridge in 2025

Writer's picture: Catherine ThompsonCatherine Thompson

A private clinic paying people to donate their blood plasma is expected to open in Cambridge late this year or in 2025.

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

A private clinic paying people to donate their blood plasma is expected to open in Cambridge late this year or in 2025.



Mathew McCarthy, Waterloo Region Record A plasma clinic will operate out of 600 Hespeler Rd. in Cambridge in late 2024 or early next year.

A private clinic paying people to donate their blood plasma is expected to open in Cambridge late this year or in 2025.


The clinic is going in at Unit 53, in a strip mall at 600 Hespeler Rd., near Langs Drive. It is one of five Ontario clinics that Grifols, a publicly traded pharmaceutical company in Spain, plans to open in Ontario in 2024-25.


Paying for blood and plasma donations is banned in Ontario. The Voluntary Blood Donations Act, meant to protect the voluntary public blood donor system in Ontario. “Blood donors should not be paid, except in exceptional circumstance,” the act says.


But Canadian Blood Services (CBS), the charity that runs the blood system in Canada outside of Quebec, has signed an agreement with the Spanish company to increase the availability of plasma in Canada.


“Through our agreement, Grifols will operate under the Act as an agent of Canadian Blood Services,” CBS said in an email. As an agent of the blood charity, Grifols is exempt from the prohibition, CBS argues.


It's not clear how much Grifols would pay for plasma donations, but Canadian Plasma Resources, which Grifols recently bought and which has clinics in other provinces, pays $30-$70 per donation, with bonuses of up to $100 for frequent donors.



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