Blood Products: Imports (Hansard, 24 February 1981)

§ Lord De Freyne
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

§ Lord Cullen of Ashbourne
My Lords, blood products which are imported for medicinal purposes are subject to licensing under the Medicines Act. The controls over manufacturing and distribution (including import) include provision for checks on the selection of blood donors and the facilities used for collection of the blood, the in-process manufacturing controls and testing of the final product before release.

§ Lord De Freyne
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that reply. Can my noble friend tell me how much was spent last year on imported blood products, and the country or countries of origin? May I also ask how he can be sure that these imported blood products are completely free of infection?

§ Lord Cullen of Ashbourne
My Lords, blood products are not purchased centrally—they are purchased by health authorities—and I regret that up-to-date information on the expenditure on imported products is not available. The country from which these products come is mainly the United States, and some also come from Austria and one or two other European countries. So far as concerns making sure that these products are free from infection, undoubtedly the careful checks which are made at all stages are extremely effective for all except a very few products, one of which is used in the case of haemophiliacs. There is a danger that Factor VIII, which has to be injected into haemophiliacs, can have in it a strain of hepatitis, and at the moment there is no way of testing for these strains. That is the one product as to whose freedom from infection we cannot be absolutely certain. However, every effort is made to see that it is not infected and, although occasionally something may happen, it is not of a serious nature.

§ Lord Wells-Pestell
My Lords, may I ask the Minister whether the House is really to understand that the Government do not know how much money is spent on importing blood into this country when it seems to be fairly common knowledge that the amount we spend per year is something like £10 million? Are the Government aware that a lot of this blood is bought from people in poor countries where there is a high incidence of blood-transmitted disease and, furthermore, that blood in some countries is obtained from junkies and alcoholics and others who have nothing to sell other than their blood?—and they sell it. Therefore, we have embarked on a very dangerous undertaking.

§ Lord Cullen of Ashbourne
My Lords, I am sure that that undertaking was embarked upon before this Government came into power and that the noble Lord knows a great deal about this matter. There is no doubt that much of the material which comes to us comes from areas—some, I believe, comes from Mexico—which occasion the making of the most careful checks. I am sure that the noble Lord knows very well how these arrangements are made. It must have been exactly the same in his time.

§ Lord Avebury
My Lords, why do the Government refuse to sanction the capital expenditure on blood transfusion laboratories in this country which will enable us to meet our own requirements from domestic sources?

§ Lord Cullen of Ashbourne
My Lords, the long-term aim is that we should be self sufficient in blood products. At the moment, we import less than half of what is needed in the country. The main laboratory is at Elstree and it is now being upgraded. By the end of next year there will be a doubling of the production there.

§ Lord Auckland
My Lords, can my noble friend give the figures as to the amount of blood products imported in the last 12 months, what they are used for and whether, when they arrive in this country, there is the absolute minimum of delay in the checking of these samples?

§ Lord Cullen of Ashbourne
My Lords, I do not think that I can answer that very fully but, certainly, immediately anything comes into the country it is checked at all stages. I should come back to the point raised by the noble Lord, Lord Wells-Pestell, where he said that I should know the actual total expenditure on blood products. I cannot give an accurate figure but I would think that it is something of the order of £5 million to £6 million—but that is only an estimate.

§ Lord Wells-Pestell
My Lords, may I ask whether it is true that the Government have decided to spend in the region of £1⅓ million to extend the laboratory at Elstree, where, if the laboratory was completely upgraded, I accept that it would cost something like £30 million? But once the laboratory had been completely upgraded and that amount had been spent, it would make it unnecessary for us to buy blood from abroad and we should recover that £30 million within three years as a result.

§ Lord Cullen of Ashbourne
My Lords, as I have said, we are anxious to get to the point where we are independent of supplies from abroad. As the noble Lord said, we are spending about £1¼ million to upgrade Elstree, and that will be completed by the end of next year. We should very much like to be able to spend the £30 million or whatever is needed completely to rebuild or hugely to expand Elstree; but at the moment (for reasons which the noble Lord will understand, since we have met these reasons before now) we are not anxious to do so.

§ Lord Mackie of Benshie
My Lords, does the noble Lord not agree that it is very important for this House to know whether there are sufficient supplies of blue blood available?