Motto Give Plasma, Give Life Type Private Location Saskatoon | Formation 2012 Headquarters Canada | |
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Purpose bio-pharmaceutical production | ||
Canadian Plasma Resources (CPR) is a bio-pharmaceutical company based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. It was founded in 2012 and specializes in the collection of source plasma for further manufacturing and contract-manufacturing of plasma-based bio-pharmaceuticals. CPR is 100% owned by the Canadian pharmaceutical company Exapharma. CPR is one of the only four establishments in Canada that are licensed to collect plasma. The others are Canadian Blood Services (CBS), Hema-Quebec and Cangene, now owned by ProMetic Life Sciences Inc.
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History
Canadian Plasma Resources is the first private company established in Canada for the sole purpose of collecting high quality plasma from healthy donors for further manufacturing. Initially, CPR had planned to base its operation in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. As a result, CPR established two plasma collection centers in Toronto. Both of these centers obtained authorization from the Biologic and Genetic Therapies Directorate of Health Canada and were granted establishment licenses in 2014. Like similar operations in the US and some European countries, CPR provides compensation for the donor’s time. This resulted in significant controversy centered around the paid donor model and created a divide in the medical community. At the request of the government of Ontario, Health Canada organized a public consultation and concluded that donor compensation is not a safety concern. Therefore, it will not prohibit donor compensation. In spite of this, in 2014, the government of Ontario introduced legislation specifically to prohibit CPR from operating in Ontario. Several stakeholders including the Canadian Blood Services (CBS) and many patient organizations argued that prohibiting pay-for-plasma would harm patients. However, this did not change the position of the Ontario government. By that time, CPR had already received strong support from several other Canadian provincial governments citing Canada’s over-reliance on other countries with paid donor models for procurement of plasma products. In 2015, CPR decided to relocate its operation to Saskatchewan. The company’s first facility in Saskatchewan received Health Canada license in early 2016 and was formally opened on February 18, 2016 by Minister Dustin Duncan, Saskatchewan’s minister of Health.
Operations
Canadian Plasma Resources’ plasma collection facility is located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Plasma collection is done through automated apheresis. To ensure donor and product safety each center is operated under the responsibility of a licensed physician and certain tasks are delegated by the physician to registered nurses. Plasma from these operations can only be used for further manufacturing into therapies such as immunoglobulin, human albumin and blood coagulation factors, which are among the World Health Organization's list of essential medicines. This collected plasma cannot be used for direct transfusion into patients. CPR is licensed by Health Canada for component preparation and testing. Health Canada is considered a leader in blood safety regulations as recognized by the World Health Organization