Okay, thanks.
Evidence of meeting #39 for Health in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cells.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #39 for Health in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cells.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
November 23rd, 2010 / 12:20 p.m.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I want to thank everyone for being here with this topic today. My wife and I made a decision with our third child, our daughter. We used a bank in Markham. It is a private one, but we've been satisfied with how it has worked out. We had the third baby at home with a midwife, so they didn't have an issue in that regard.
In 2008, Minister Clement got together with the provincial and territorial ministers. They made an announcement of $35 million over five years to create an integrated national system to improve organ donation and transplantation in Canada. I was wondering if you could speak about that investment and let the committee know what has occurred since then.
12:20 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Blood Services
I'm happy to do that, Dr. Carrie, as that was funding provided to Canadian Blood Services.
The funding you are referring to was to develop and design an integrated system for organ and tissue donation and transplantation. The cord blood bank initiative is separate from that. What you are referring to was the joint federal, provincial, and territorial announcement to create an integrated pan-Canadian system for organ and tissue donation and transplantation, which has already started. The work is under way. The strategic plan has been developed and will be presented to the governments on December 9. We've already launched some of the registries that were supported by the provincial components of those dollars. For example, we launched the kidney paired exchange registry, which has already allowed 50 kidney transplants to happen that, without the national registry, would not have taken place. That's a separate stream of work related more to organs and other tissues besides cord blood, things like skin, bone, cornea, and those sorts of tissues for banking purposes.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
Okay.
We talked a bit about the regulations. I was wondering if you could describe how the regulations have affected the supply of cord blood available in Canada.
12:25 p.m.
Manager, Blood, Cells, Tissues, Organs and Xenografts, Office of Policy and International Collaboration, Biologics and Genetic Therapies Directorate, Department of Health
The supply issue would probably be better dealt with by our guest speakers.
As to the effect on safety, etc., we have done cost-benefit analyses, and we have done a lot of research on developing the regulations. We do not believe the regulations have limited or made cord blood or stem cells any less available in Canada. They have bolstered the safety of cells, tissues, and organs available in Canada for Canadians, and they have made cord blood and bone marrow more available internationally. We are not aware of the regulations making availability any more difficult.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
12:25 p.m.
Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Manitoba, CancerCare Manitoba
Probably Donna would be best. She does cord blood transplants and is an inspector in those cord blood banks.
In my understanding, Canada is more or less adopting its own rules about the safety of cord blood banking. But we are in parallel, adopting North American rules. Those cord blood units can cross over to us from Europe, the United States, Australia, the entire western world, without much limitation.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
12:25 p.m.
Director, Manitoba Blood and Marrow Transplant Program, Pediatrics and Child Health, Internal Medicine and Immunology, University of Manitoba, CancerCare Manitoba
The Health Canada regulations are right on target. You have to remember that cord blood is going into an immunocompromised patient, so we really need high standards and we need to do everything possible to prevent the transfer of infection. You don't want to push Health Canada too hard on this one, in my opinion.
This has not been a limiting factor in the collection of cord blood units. The limitation has been the coordination and funding in getting the operation off the ground.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
I would think, actually, it would be helpful to have a convergence of regulations internationally to help increase the blood supply. My next question leads into that.
I think it's obvious, with the presentation, that sometimes cord blood is imported. I was wondering if you could comment on how we can be sure that the imported cord blood is of the same quality as we get in Canada. You mentioned the CTO regulations, and I think somebody mentioned the cost, or one of my colleagues mentioned it. Is it increased cost when you do these international...?
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
Ms. Gillham-Eisen, do you want to answer that, or would you like to give it over to...?
12:25 p.m.
Manager, Blood, Cells, Tissues, Organs and Xenografts, Office of Policy and International Collaboration, Biologics and Genetic Therapies Directorate, Department of Health
I wouldn't be able to comment on the cost, but as far as the regulations themselves are concerned, they apply to imported cord blood as well, so the safety standard is the same.
12:25 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Blood Services
Very briefly, there is a cost; there is a fee for importing stem cells, whether they're from cord blood or bone marrow peripheral blood, and it's $35,000 U.S.
One of the other arguments for growing a Canadian bank is that there are substantial savings to the health care system, and certainly if we export cells, it's a revenue generator as well.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
12:25 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Blood Services
Yes, that's correct, sir.
12:25 p.m.
Director, Manitoba Blood and Marrow Transplant Program, Pediatrics and Child Health, Internal Medicine and Immunology, University of Manitoba, CancerCare Manitoba
No, there isn't. It would be restrictive trade, so the banks have their own fee structures, and the cost of a cord can range between $20,000 up to $42,000, at least from the dollars that we see on the transplant centre side. Once you start looking at using two cord blood units for a patient, you can see that we're running into a sizeable cost outlay upfront for the cost of the graft.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
Thank you very much.
I have one other question, and this is something that hasn't been addressed yet. What are some of the major challenges, actually, to get people to donate?
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
Dr. Carrie, I'm sorry. Mr. Décelles would just like to add an additional comment, and then we'll go to your question.
12:30 p.m.
Vice-President, Stem Cells, Human Tissues and Reference Laboratory Operations, Héma-Québec
As far as cost goes, you need to keep two things in mind.
What Dr. Wall just said is absolutely true. The cost of cord blood units from international banks varies between US$20,000, which is especially low, and US$30,000 or US$35,000. Units that come from Héma-Québec cost the same thing. I would put the current cost of a cord blood unit at around US$35,000.
You also need to consider the cost associated with putting a cord blood unit in a bank. As mentioned earlier, not every unit in the bank will eventually be used. A mature bank is said to use around 2% of its cord blood units. The current cost of adding to a very mature bank's inventory varies between US$2,500 and US$3,000 a unit and can even be as high as US$4,000.
Those are two completely different units of measurement. You have the cost of banking a unit and the cost of distributing it.