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After 10 terrible days of chills, nausea, a fever of 103, and a headache of such intensity that her nose was bleeding, Aleacia Jenkins knew that she had been affected by the coronavirus even before testing positive.
So when a friend told him about an obscure Californian company asking for blood donations from people who had recovered from the virus to help The researchers develop antibody tests, he did not hesitate.
“If my blood donation could help save the life of someone older or more vulnerable,” said Jenkins, 42, of Shoreline, Washington, “it would be crazy not to want to help do that.”
But what she didn’t know at the time was that the company, Cantor BioConnect, was selling those donations to laboratories and test makers at sometimes exorbitant prices – anywhere from $ 350 to $ 40,000 for a rare sample from a single donor.
Cantor BioConnect said its prices were directly related to “high costs” in its supply chain, which includes finding donors, analyzing samples, security costs, and shipping logistics.
Throughout the world, scientists are competing to develop and mass produce reliable products Antibody tests that public health experts say are a crucial element in ending the coronavirus blocks that are causing economic devastation. But that effort is being hampered, scientists say, by a shortage of blood samples containing antibodies to Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, that are needed to validate the tests.
Recognizing a rare opportunity, some companies are trying to capitalize on the shortage, soliciting blood donations and selling samples for rich rewards in a practice that has been condemned by medical professionals as, at the very least, unethical.
While trade is happening worldwide, there is a particular shortage in Britain, which has only a small number of Covid-19 positive blood samples, public health officials said, because it was slow to implement the tests.
Traditionally, Britain’s largely centralized public health system has provided blood samples to laboratories and clinics at low cost. Unlike the private market in the United States, the British system is not configured to distribute samples to a large network of laboratories and test manufacturers, leaving many of them now to fend for themselves.
But that hasn’t stopped companies from trying to make a profit by selling donated blood in other countries to Britain and elsewhere, which they can do legally.
Documents, emails, and price lists obtained by The New York Times show that Cantor BioConnect is one of several companies worldwide that offers to sell Covid-19 blood samples to laboratories and test manufacturers at high prices. The higher the level of antibodies in the blood, the higher the price.
From March 31 to April 22, the prices requested by Cantor BioConnect for its cheapest samples, always sold per milliliter, the equivalent of less than a quarter teaspoon, increased more than 40 percent, to $ 500 from $ 350. In addition to the $ 40,000 sample, the company also increased the number of blood samples for sale by $ 3,000 and introduced new prices from $ 1,000 to $ 2,000 for other “premium” stocks.
“I’ve never seen these prices before,” said Dr. Joe Fitchett, medical director of Mologic, one of the British test makers who received blood samples. “You make money from people’s suffering.”
Stylized by high prices, scientists in Britain say they have been forced to turn to personal connections and word of mouth to get the blood donations they need.
“Any medication or vaccine or test kit that is developed must go through trials, tests and validations, and to do that you need to have positive samples,” said Kelly Sapsford, who administers the blood collections for Clinical Trials Laboratory Services, a private donation. of blood. Center in London. “They are critical.”
All the companies mentioned in this article have denied any speculation.
Cantor BioConnect was founded in 2016 in a San Diego suburb. Its creator, David Cantor, followed in his father’s footsteps in what was then a sleepy business. He said in a statement that he was “proud to be playing a role in scientific research that will eventually help neutralize this deadly virus.”
Cantor arrived early to spot a gap in the market. On March 18 of this year, he Posted on Facebook: “As you know, the war on the coronavirus is currently hampered by the unavailability of evidence.”
He added: “I have been flooded with requests for this blood and we need to find 50 patients willing to help the cause by donating some tubes of blood.”
Cantor and his employees began contacting coronavirus patients on social media to request blood donations. In an online ad removed since then, they said they were working “in concert” with the White House Covid-19 Task Force and offered $ 100 for each donation.
Dozens of donations began pouring in from across the United States. Within days, he was sending vials of blood to clients around the world.
The highest demand, Cantor said, came from American laboratories and manufacturers of antibody tests. But the company also attracted high demand from Japan and Europe, he said, including several “intermediaries” in Britain.
According to industry experts, some of Cantor BioConnect’s blood samples are reasonably priced for the US market. But many said the “premium inventory” price of $ 3,000 per milliliter was much higher than normal. And they all described the company’s price of $ 40,000 for a “seroconversion panel” of three blood donations from one patient as exorbitant.
The company said its overall profit margin on the project was 30 to 40 percent, which it said was in line with industry standards. He said the $ 40,000 price was for a “one-time transaction” on an extremely rare and valuable sample, and that it did not track the profit margin of each individual sample sold.
Mr. Cantor described his sample costs as the donation fee of $ 100, a maximum of $ 200 to send the donation to his company, and the payment of a phlebotomist to collect the blood sample.
In response to other questions, he said in a statement that the Covid-19 positive donor blood collection process was “complex” and “extremely difficult and expensive” due to safety protocols and the small number of known coronavirus cases. when he started supplying blood donations.
“There are ways to do things well and safely, and then there are other ways to do it cheaply,” he said, adding that the company had sold samples to “one of the world’s largest test manufacturers,” helping it to “save lifes”. . “
In a final step, Cantor BioConnect is based on a network of intermediaries, companies that find buyers for their products worldwide. Cantor declined to name his clients or partners, but documents show that Advy Chemical, a major biotech manufacturer in Mumbai, is one of its intermediaries.
The Indian company produces diagnostic kits and materials needed to develop tests for various diseases, which it then sells through its worldwide network of customers. Is certified by the German safety regulator and licensed by the Indian Food and Drug Administration.
According to emails and price lists reviewed by The Times, in one day his price for the cheapest blood samples doubled, to $ 950 per milliliter from $ 350, while “premium” inventory increased to $ 5,000 of $ 3,000. The most expensive blood sample was $ 50,000, an increase of $ 10,000 compared to Cantor BioConnect.
Advy Chemical said in a statement that the company did not sell any blood samples, but that it helped facilitate connections for products that other manufacturers might need. He said he had not yet sold any of the Cantor BioConnect samples.
When asked why he had inflated prices so much if he was just a facilitator, the company cited “strict” confidentiality agreements and said it would not comment on “trade speculation and trade details.”
The company strongly denied the price increase in the quantities shown in the emails and price lists.
“Our sole intention was to help bring more accurate and faster evidence,” he said in the statement. “We had hoped that this would help humanity, in a small way, in these difficult times.”
There is no doubt that market pressures are severe. In Britain, where the cost of the human sample is generally low, scientists and manufacturers were surprised to receive a $ 925 quote for a blood sample from a Scottish company called Tissue Solutions, far more than the $ 50 maximum they said they would normally pay hospitals.
Tissue Solutions CEO Morag McFarlane said the company was not making a profit on the samples, which would violate England’s ban on third parties to benefit from N.H.S. Blood collections.
He said its highest price was the result of hospital biobanks charging more to collect blood due to the complex nature of collecting potentially contagious Covid-19 samples.
Such explanations, whatever their validity, did not go very far with Jenkins, the potential blood donor. After a journalist told him how much money he was making from Cantor BioConnect’s requested blood donations, he said he had decided that he wanted “nowhere” and would instead donate his blood to a nonprofit clinic in Seattle.
“Anyone who’s trying to take advantage of a pandemic,” he said, “I think it’s really sad and it’s wrong.”
