Canadian Blood Services

The Canadian Blood Services ensures Canadian patients have reliable access to blood, blood products, stem cells, organs and tissues that are safe. The organization collects, tests and manufactures blood and blood products such as red blood cells, platelets and plasma and also provides diagnostic laboratory testing in some provinces. Plasma is collected from unpaid volunteer donors in Canada. The collected plasma is used for transfusions or shipped to contract manufacturers. The Canadian Blood Services distributes plasma protein products to hospitals in Canada to treat patients with immune disorders and diseases like hemophilia. The Canadian Blood services collects cord blood and manufactures stem cells, provides HLA typing services and manages the national transplant registry for interprovincial organ sharing.

The Canadian Blood Services and Héma-Québec will be managing plasma donations for a clinical study on convalescent plasma for treatment of COVID-19 that will include 1000 patients from across the country in 40 hospitals. The study will be led by Dr. Donald Arnold, hematologist at McMaster University and overseen by doctors from the University of Montreal, University of Ottawa, University of Toronto, McMaster and the University of British Columbia. Plasma from patients that have recovered from COVID-19, which contains antibodies that could potentially help fight the SARS-CoV-2 virus, will be injected into COVID-19 patients. Head scientist Dana Devine at the Canadian Blood Services will also be conducting a study to understand immunity to COVID-19.

The Canadian Blood Services is part of an international working group partnered with Australia, China, France, Germany, Italy, Singapore, South Korea, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.