Faced with the loss of the monopoly on blood donation and the therapeutic production of plasma, EFS employees are worried about their future and especially about the questioning of the French principle of blood donation, based on gratuity. They have decided to go on strike and call for a demonstration in front of the Ministry of Health on Tuesday January 28, 2015 at 1 p.m.
From February 1, 2015, the EFS will no longer have a monopoly on the manufacture of therapeutic plasma that it was the only one able to produce in France. This decision taken by the Council of State in July 2014 considers that private companies, such as Octapharma, an international laboratory specializing in plasma fractionation, will be authorized to manufacture and market therapeutic plasma.
“Following this company’s appeal to the European Court, the Council of State ruled that the manufacture of therapeutic plasma with inactivation treatment by detergent solvent (also called SD plasma) was an industrial technique and therefore, that this type of plasma was a drug, ”explains Régine Basty, CFDT central union delegate for 20 minutes daily.
The production of plasma represents only 2% of the activity of the EFS, but “” this decision will result in the disappearance, as of this year, of 50 jobs “, assures Régine Basty.
Loss of monopoly on blood donation
EFS employees are also worried about the conclusions of a report by the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (IGAS). According to a new audit commissioned by the Ministry of Health, the monopoly of blood donation by the EFS could be called into question and be opened to another public establishment, the French Fractionation and Biotechnology Laboratory (LFB), which markets blood-based drugs.
“We do not understand such decisions, if it is not a desire to considerably limit the monopoly and the role of the EFS, by favoring the pharmaceutical lobbies”, denounce the unions, who fear, in the long term, to see disappear. the French model of blood donation, based on free access.
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