IBTS admits blood was sold without donors’ permission

A STARTLING admission by the blood bank that it sold blood and blood products to pharmaceutical firms without the express permission of donors was described as “disturbing” by Health Minister Mary Harney last night.

Donated blood was sold to 23 pharmaceutical firms over a period of almost 20 years and the blood bank was paid over €106,000 for the products. The practice ended in March 2002.

Over 3,800 units of blood and blood products were supplied to pharmaceutical firms, of which 1,344 were fresh products, while the balance was out of date.

Because financial records prior to 1995 are “patchy and incomplete” full details of payments are not available, according to the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS). Ms Harney is to examine a 52-page internal audit by the IBTS.

“I was surprised to learn of this matter and disturbed to hear that this practice has been taking place without the express consent of those who donated blood,” said Ms Harney.

The IBTS receives over 150,000 voluntary donations every year. IBTS national medical director Dr William Murphy said yesterday he realised donors would be upset but hoped it would not put them off donating.

He was surprised at the scale of the activity that he became aware of in 1997 and sought to curtail the practice immediately.

The practice ended in March 1997 in the blood bank in Dublin but due to what the IBTS described as a “misunderstanding” it continued at the Munster Regional Transfusion Centre in Cork at a reduced level until 2002. Some of the payments were used to pay staff overtime.

“I have been a blood donor myself and assumed that donations go directly into therapeutic use,” said Dr Murphy.

“Most of all, donors were giving their blood, not for use by commercial companies, but on the firm understanding that it was being used for therapeutic purposes.”

Some of the main pharmaceutical firms involved that have been identified by the IBTS are Warner Lambert, Organon Technica (Ireland) Ltd; Trinity Biotech, Technicon Ltd, Shandon Clinic and Flemming and Son Co Limit and Olympus Diagnostica.