On August 13, the private plasma-collecting company Grifols, that operates seventeen donation facilities in Canada, announced that it is temporarily pausing plasma collection. In a statement, the company notes that it is doing so proactively and voluntarily. The decision follows recent coverage of investigations into the death of a donor late last year. “The temporary pause will allow Grifols to work with Health Canada and Canadian Blood Services on the framework needed to support the continued development of a sustainable and robust plasma collection network in Canada,” says the statement.
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While Grifols has had a presence in Canada since 2022, it wasn’t until late last year that the company and its plasma collection services became the subject of public scrutiny. On October 25, 2025, Rodiyat Alabede, a twenty-two-year-old international student in Winnipeg, walked into a Grifols plasma donation centre on Taylor Avenue. About forty-five minutes into donating her plasma, Alabede went into sudden cardiac arrest. She was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. Since then, patient advocates, Alabede’s family, and others who were close to the student have agitated for transparency around Grifols and its role in plasma collection in Canada.
Grifols is a privately owned company based in Spain. In 2022, it inked a deal with the Canadian Blood Services to act as a plasma-collecting agent for the national charity. Grifols pays donors for their plasma, which the CBS has never done. The CBS still does not pay for standard whole blood donations.
Plasma is a yellow protein-rich liquid component of blood, which helps to circulate other parts of blood throughout the body. It supports the immune system, controls excessive bleeding, and is used to make products for patients with bleeding disorders, liver diseases, and cancer. At Grifols, plasma is collected through an automated process called plasmapheresis, wherein a machine collects blood from the donor, separates the plasma, and then returns the red blood cells and platelets back to the donor. The process also uses citrate, which thins the blood and can lower blood pressure.
The rationale behind paying for donations is the high and rising demand for plasma. The global demand has increased by 40 percent since 2020. At the time that Grifols came into the picture in Canada, the Canadian Blood Services was issuing warnings about a shortage of immunoglobulin, a widely used plasma-based medication.
According to the Grifols website as of May 2026, plasma donors are paid up to $100 for each of their first four plasma donations. After that, donors receive payments between $40 and $90 per donation, depending on volume and frequency as well as the donor’s history with the company. After donating ten times in six weeks, donors receive a $50 bonus. Critics say that this model is exploitative because it financially incentivizes donors to return frequently. Three provinces—Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec—have a ban on paid plasma donations, but, in 2022, Ontario and Grifols signed an agreement where the company acts as an “agent” for the Canadian Blood Services, meaning it can essentially skirt the provincial ban.
Health Canada opened up an investigation into Alabede’s death. On November 20, Health Canada visited the Grifols location where she had donated plasma and found multiple deficiencies, according to a report that was issued on December 22, 2025, and obtained by the Globe and Mail. The report also notes that the national health regulator had repeatedly pointed out certain issues with Grifols, without resolution. These problems include staff training, standard operating procedures being incomplete or not followed by staff, incomplete or illegible records, and ineffective actions taken by Grifols in response to past inspections.
On August 3, 2023, Health Canada conducted a compliance visit to the same site Alabede visited after a donor who experienced hemolysis, or the destruction of red blood cells, sued Grifols. The hemolysis caused an acute kidney injury from the reinsertion of broken red blood cells. The November 20, 2025, review said that directions given to Grifols after the 2023 incident were incomplete or not followed.
In January 2026, another death was reported at a different Grifols location in Winnipeg. In March 2026, Health Canada conducted a probe of the two Winnipeg Grifols locations and said that no linkage had been established between plasma donation and the two deaths. The federal agency noted that further questions should be directed to the province’s medical examiner. Also in March, Health Canada investigated Grifols’ head office in Oakville, Ontario. A number of Grifols locations were previously rated “non-compliant” by Health Canada: its Saint John location in 2022, its Saskatoon centre in 2023, its Calgary location in December 2025, and its Regina centre in January 2026.
Based on these findings, on April 1, Health Canada announced that all Grifols locations would face new, tighter terms and conditions. These include reducing the number of appointments, reassessing the number of trained personnel, ensuring that the quality assurance department reviews donor suitability records, reviewing donor files before updating donor eligibility, implementing additional oversight for newer staff, conducting an internal annual audit of regulated activities, and submitting the audit to Health Canada. These conditions are to remain in place until Grifols can demonstrate sustained compliance at all sites.
On April 3, Health Canada sent a statement to the press saying that “no linkage has been established” between the plasma donation process and Alabede’s death.
Alabede’s family and members of Parliament on the House of Commons health committee requested and were given unredacted documents from Health Canada, including inspection reports and a medical summary of her death dated March 27. The documents detail how, over forty-six minutes, the plasma-collecting machine issued five alerts to Grifols staff related to Alabede’s blood flow and blood pressure, the second of which was severe enough that staff should have terminated the procedure.
Alabede soon began convulsing and having seizure-like symptoms, prompting the staff to end the donation. She died about two hours after the start of her donation. According to the documents, it was Alabede’s first time donating plasma. She had undergone the company’s registration, screening, and medical assessment process. An autopsy performed two days later found that Alabede had an enlarged heart, and her cause of death was specified as “sudden cardiac death.” Grifols’ own internal investigation concluded that “all procedures were followed appropriately, the equipment was functioning properly and supplies used were suitable for use.”
There are other revelations from the March 2026 Health Canada report obtained by the Globe and Mail. For example, there were multiple cases of Grifols allowing donations from people who should have been denied because of risks associated with Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), a fatal brain disorder, and its variant linked to mad cow disease. After the Globe’s reporting, Grifols asserted that it did not collect plasma from donors with CJD risk factors.
