|
Newsletter
|
Donate
Toronto paid plasma clinics lure residents with ‘Super Hero’ loyalty program and cash bonuses
Posted: December 19, 2025
(December 18, 2025) By: Gabe Oatley, TorontoToday.ca
Toronto’s new paid plasma donation clinics pay a ‘bonus’ of $100 if an individual gives blood plasma 100 times in a calendar year. Advocates say ‘gamified’ incentives put donors at risk
Editor’s note: This is part two of a two-part series about the introduction of the paid blood plasma donation industry in Toronto and the residents who are now earning money from these facilities. Read part one here.
A payment system that rewards Torontonians for giving their blood plasma as often as 100 times per year has sparked concern among some public health advocates who fear such frequent donations may harm patients’ health.
This summer, Grifols, the multinational pharmaceutical company behind the incentives, opened two new clinics in Toronto that offer individuals between $30 and $120 per visit for giving blood plasma.
The purchase of plasma is illegal in Ontario. However, Canadian Blood Services has an exemption to that rule. In 2022, facing a pandemic-related shortage of plasma donations, the federal agency entered into a controversial agreement with Grifols that permits it to pay Canadians for plasma.
While Canadian Blood Services evokes civic duty to encourage Canadians to give blood and plasma — as exemplified by its long-running advertising slogan “it’s in you to give” — Grifols relies on a complicated structure of financial incentives and bonuses that reward frequent visits to its clinics.
Individuals who sell their plasma to Grifols at least twice per week for five consecutive weeks earn their way into the company’s “gold” payment tier, where a client can receive up to $115 for giving plasma twice per week. Come less often, and individuals are in the “orange” or “silver” tiers, where two visits per week nets $95 or $105, respectively.
In all cases, the first plasma draw of the week pays significantly less than the second, another design feature that encourages people to keep coming back. Grifols refers to this tier system as its “Super Hero” loyalty program.
Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition, said she is concerned the company is using financial incentives to exploit individuals who are financially vulnerable, putting their health at risk.
“It’s hideous,” she said in an interview with TorontoToday. “It’s an abrogation of our values.”
On Tuesday afternoon, TorontoToday spent an hour outside the company’s North York collection centre, during which time four out of the 15 people who entered the clinic to give plasma agreed to be interviewed. All four said they were struggling financially and showed up that day because they needed money. Each said they had learned about the opportunity via the company’s social media ads.
Steven Staples, national policy director with advocacy organization Canadian Health Coalition, called Grifols’ payment structure “unCanadian.”
“This is not a Canadian Tire rewards program here. We’re talking about people’s health,” he said. “This is not something that should be just treated as a transactional relationship.”
Canada has no maximum donation frequency, unlike other countries
Many countries have national health regulations dictating a maximum frequency for plasma collection, as well as a maximum total number of times an individual can give plasma per year.
However, no such overarching regulations exist in Canada.
Within this regulatory flexibility, Grifols is extracting blood plasma at double the frequency permitted at Canadian Blood Services’ own collection centres, where donors must wait at least six days between draws.
In Ontario, despite acting as an agent of Canadian Blood Services, Grifols says individuals can give plasma as often as two times in a seven-day period, with a minimum of one day between visits.
Asked about this discrepancy, Canadian Blood Services said its licence with Health Canada allows its donors to donate plasma up to 52 times per year but that other operators undertake their own “submission and authorization process” through the federal department.
Under federal law, Health Canada is responsible for the regulatory oversight of the safety of Canada’s blood and plasma supply, but it is Canadian Blood Services and Héma-Québec (the agency responsible for blood collection in Quebec) that are tasked with ensuring blood and plasma donor safety.
Canadian Blood Services did not respond to questions asked by TorontoToday as to whether Grifols’ high-frequency donation practices are safe. Instead, it redirected TorontoToday to Health Canada.
“In all situations, Health Canada’s review is independent and grounded in science and law,” the department said. “This includes regulated standards for donor eligibility criteria and how frequently plasma can be collected from each donor.”
Are high-frequency plasma donations safe?
TorontoToday inquired with Grifols about the safety of giving plasma as frequently as it advertises. In an emailed response, the company directed TorontoToday to a peer-reviewed meta study published last year in the medical journal Transfusion Medicine Reviews, which Grifols claimed confirms that “regular plasma donation does not negatively impact donor health and wellbeing.”
In fact, the study says that very high-frequency plasma donations (defined as twice per week) may “significantly affect” a donor’s level of immunoglobulin — an antibody that fights off infection — as well as potentially lead to iron deficiency.
Low immunoglobulin can cause severe infections, including bronchitis, meningitis or pneumonia, as well as increase the risk of developing autoimmune diseases, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Meanwhile, iron deficiency, which is measured by testing donors’ ferritin levels, can result in extreme tiredness, cold hands and feet, or weakness, owing to an absence of sufficient healthy red blood cells, according to the Mayo Clinic.
“Donating plasma [three] times a month or [two] times a week may result in a large reduction in ferritin levels compared to donating once a month,” the study states.
The study cautioned that the evidence is of low to very low certainty, because donors who give plasma are typically healthier than the average population and because of methodological limitations. It urges more high-quality research is needed to ensure the safety of frequent donors as demand for plasma continues to grow.
“Donor protection is essential, given that healthy donors receive no direct medical benefit from donating plasma,” it said.
Asked about these detailed findings, Grifols did not respond directly.
“Across Canada and around the world, people donate plasma regularly with multiple countries allowing donations of up to twice a week,” the company claimed in an emailed statement. “At each donation, presenting donors undergo a health assessment to ensure eligibility to donate.”
While twice weekly plasma donations are permitted in the United States (up to a maximum of 104 times per year), many countries, including France, the Czech Republic, Italy and the Netherlands restrict donations to once every two weeks.
The meta study noted that claims that high-frequency donations are safe do not meet rigorous scientific standards.
“Claims that donating plasma twice a week, as allowed by the [U.S.] Food and Drug Administration, is proven to be safe have often been based on insufficient evidence, mostly involving methodologically flawed observational studies that do not, in fact, support such conclusions,” it said.
Ads focus on earnings, encourage recurring plasma draws
Grant Packard, an assistant professor of marketing at York University’s Schulich School of Business, said Grifols’ payment structure seems designed to encourage individuals to treat selling plasma “as though it’s a job.”
According to Meta’s ad library, the company’s North York and Etobicoke locations launched a social media ad blitz this fall, sponsoring posts on Instagram and Facebook that advertise the potential for individuals to earn up to $6,890 per year.
Packard said the ads’ emphasis on the word “earn” seems aimed at legitimizing plasma donation as an income-generating activity.
“I think it targets people who probably don’t have sufficient earnings elsewhere,” he said. “If you’re in a low-income situation, you don’t want a hand-out, you want to earn your money.”
The business school professor said Grifols’ “gamified” payment structure that incentivizes twice-weekly donations feels “kind of American.”
In addition to its tiered payments, individuals can receive a variety of bonuses, including a $100 annual retention bonus for giving plasma 100 times in a single calendar year. Every time an individual gives plasma ten times within a six week period, they also receive a $50 “retention bonus.”
Clients can additionally receive a “birthday bonus” for donating three days before or after their birthday, or an “anniversary bonus” for donating three days before or after the anniversary of the first time they gave plasma at a Grifols clinic.
Grifols’ rates are also determined by the amount of blood that can be extracted from a client each visit. This system of tiers dictates that a 901 ml blood draw earns up to $20 more than a 749 ml draw.
Lea Katsanis, a Concordia University marketing professor who studies pharmaceutical sales, said the company is using “promotional pricing” to draw donors in, and subsequently relying on “maintenance pricing” to keep them coming back.
Individuals receive $100 per visit for their first three visits, whereafter per visit rates are lower.
Packard said he struggles with how to feel about these incentives, recognizing that plasma is needed to make drugs that people rely on to treat life-threatening conditions.
Still, he said he believes the marketing and incentives being used by Grifols are “concerning.”
“It’s a signal our health-care system may be becoming a bit more like the U.S. one,” he said.
Incentives working to draw repeat visits
A man in his 60s who spoke with TorontoToday on Tuesday said he gives plasma at Grifols’ Toronto clinics when he’s having income trouble, adding he’s so far done it 14 or 15 times.
TorontoToday also spoke recently with a 48-year-old Parkdale resident who said she had sold her plasma at Grifols three times in the past two weeks. The resident said she planned to continue until she reached 10 visits, in order to secure the 10th visit bonus of an additional $50.
She said she has also convinced her husband to join her at an upcoming plasma collection because the company provides a $25 incentive when someone else is successfully referred.
Individuals who spoke with TorontoToday said the clinic staff have treated them well and that they have not felt any adverse reactions from having their plasma drawn.
However, that hasn’t alleviated the concerns of one city councillor.
Last fall, with word of the planned Toronto clinics, Coun. Chris Moise (Toronto Centre), spearheaded the passage of a symbolic motion declaring the municipality a “paid plasma free zone.” This week, Moise said the move toward paid plasma is a mistake.
“The worst-case scenarios are literally straight out of dystopian science fiction: people in desperate or dire situations may risk their health — or worse — in order to make ends meet,” he said.
In an emailed statement, Coun. Josh Matlow (Toronto-St. Paul’s) also expressed reservations about paid plasma.
“Donating plasma is a generous gift that should be encouraged, but we need to be giving ourselves a close look as a city when life has gotten so unaffordable that people are relying on selling plasma to pay for the basics and afford gifts for the holidays.”
—With files from TorontoToday’s Allison Smith
