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Health Canada imposes conditions on plasma company with Toronto clinics after donor deaths, inspection failures
Posted: April 3, 2026
(April 2, 2026) By: Gabe Oatley, TorontoToday
Health Canada has taken the rare step of imposing conditions on Grifols’ clinics nationwide, due to ‘recurring, systemic deficiencies’ found during investigations
Health Canada has taken the rare step of imposing conditions on for-profit plasma collection clinics operated by Grifols after the health regulator identified “recurring, systemic deficiencies” at the company’s facilities during inspections.
The health agency is now requiring Grifols, which has 16 plasma clinics nationwide including two in Toronto, to reduce the number of appointments it conducts and improve quality checks.
These conditions come following the deaths of two donors at the company’s clinics in Winnipeg within the past six months and a recent Health Canada inspection of the company’s head office in Oakville which found major deficiencies in Grifols’ operating practices.
Among other concerns identified by Health Canada, the head office inspection found that Grifols had not properly screened out a donor who should have been deemed unsuitable to sell their plasma “when information showed that the safety of blood could be affected.”
The investigation of the company’s head office also found Grifols had not thoroughly investigated errors and accidents nor employed a sufficient number of staff with the necessary skills to conduct its work.
The documented concerns are similar to issues raised in a string of non-compliant reports issued against the company’s clinics since Grifols began operating in Canada in 2022.
The new Health Canada conditions force Grifols to reduce the number of appointments at all of its clinics, add additional supervision for newer staff and to “reassess” the number of trained staff required for each position.
In interviews on Monday and Tuesday with TorontoToday, health advocates slammed the federal health regulator and said they do not believe the terms go nearly far enough.
“It’s just a slap on the wrist,” said Steven Staples, national director of advocacy with the Canadian Health Coalition. “These facilities should be closed until further notice.”
NDP health critic and MPP France Gélinas said the company’s several recent sub-standard inspection reports show Grifols has had “serious infractions from top to bottom.”
“And yet, all they do is put conditions? What would it take to shut this place down?” she said. “Any healthcare facility that has such poor compliance should be shut down.”
In an emailed statement, a Grifols spokesperson said the company is working to implement the new Health Canada requirements.
“All of our donor centres remain open and continue to operate under the supervision of Health Canada, in compliance with applicable regulatory requirements, with donor safety remaining our top priority,” the spokesperson said.
Was Grifols cutting corners?
One of the new conditions requires that all Grifols clinics, including those in Etobicoke and North York, must “immediately reduce the number of appointments” such that the number of donors scheduled at any given time does not exceed the number of plasma collection machines on site.
Ontario Health Coalition executive director Natalie Mehra said the new requirement raises significant questions with regard to the number of appointments the clinics have been handling per day.
“I don’t think Health Canada is particularly worried about whether people are sitting in the waiting room,” she said. “I think what they would be worried about is, are they pushing people through too quickly in order to make more profit.”
Mehra wondered whether the new conditions offer any insight into the recent deaths of two people following plasma donations at the company’s Winnipeg clinics, including 22-year-old international student Rodiyat Alabede.
Grifols has stated the company has “no reason to believe that there is a correlation between the donors’ passing and plasma donation.”
Last week, before the House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Health, Grifols vice-president of sales and commercial operations, Mary Hughes said the company’s assessment is based on an “internal” investigation of the deaths.
Though Alabed died more than five months ago, Health Canada has not yet released any information about the cause of the woman’s death.
In a prior emailed statement to TorontoToday, the federal health regulator said “no link has been made between the plasma donation process and the two deaths.”
A ‘hair raising’ finding: advocate
Mehra said the recent finding that Grifols had not property screened donors in such a way that the safety of the blood supply could be affected, was “hair raising.”
The federal government’s handbook for blood and plasma collection investigations states that an infraction related to donor assessment could include: not asking a donor sufficient questions on travel history to screen for risk of malaria, or failing to ask about risk factors for communicable diseases.
Mehra said the documented failure “cuts to the core of the safety of the blood system.”
Kat Lanteigne, former executive director for non-profit advocacy organization BloodWatch, alleged that the inspection reports show Health Canada and the province of Ontario are not protecting residents from “a private company who is engaging in unsafe practices.”
Though paid plasma collection is illegal in Ontario, the provincial government has permitted Grifols to act as an “agent” of Canadian Blood Services, which is exempt from the rule, allowing the company to skirt the ban.
TorontoToday asked Health Minister Sylvia Jones for comment on the new inspection results and the conditions imposed by Health Canada, but did not receive a response prior to publication.
Deaths ‘concerning’ to donors
On Thursday, several people who entered Grifols’ Etobicoke clinic told TorontoToday the news of the recent deaths and Health Canada’s conditions on the company gave them pause.
Etobicoke resident and nurse Lada Shcherba said it was “concerning” to read about the deaths. However, she said she wasn’t sure whether the clinics’ practices had anything to do with it.
“In Canada, if it was the clinic’s fault, they would have it shut down,” she said.
Informed of the latest Health Canada conditions by TorontoToday, Shcherba said she didn’t know what to make of it.
She said her experiences with the clinic have been positive, “but, definitely, if they’re not following protocol, or not screening properly, it’s dangerous.”
With regard to advocates’ demands to end paid plasma collection in Canada, a second donor, who asked to remain anonymous, said he would be disappointed by that outcome.
The donor said he travels by transit to the clinic from his home in Scarborough about twice per week — a trip that takes about two hours. The man said he is currently looking for work, and that the per visit payments of up to $100 have been helpful.
A third man who spoke with TorontoToday on Thursday, and looked to be in his fifties, similarly said his motivation for plasma donation was “financial.”
Last year TorontoToday reported that Grifols uses social media advertising and complex financial incentives to encourage individuals to donate as often as twice per week — a rate which a recent meta study has found can cause negative health impacts.
Individuals who sell their plasma to Grifols 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.
Before speaking with TorontoToday, the second man said he had not heard about the recent deaths nor about Grifols’ recent non-compliant inspection reports.
He said that prior to donating for the first time, he looked up information about the procedure online, which led him to believe it was safe.
MPP Gélinas said that when conducted properly, plasma donation is incredibly low-risk.
However, she alleged Grifols’ inspection record shows the company has not had in place the appropriate procedures to keep patients safe.
“This is a serious medical procedure that is taking place,” she said, of plasma collection.
“And apparently, from what they’re telling us from the non-compliance report, they’re saying … the staff are not knowledgeable enough to do the serious medical procedure.”
