A deal worked out between the Blood Transfusion Service Board (BTSB) and the Travenol pharmaceutical company to make bloodclotting agents from Irish plasma provided a "double benefit" to the BTSB, the Lindsay tribunal heard.
Counsel for the tribunal Mr Gerard Durcan SC said it was an attractive deal for the board in 1985 as Travenol paid the BTSB for the plasma collected from volunteer donors and gave the board back Factor 8 clotting agents free of charge. These, in turn, were sold to hospitals in the State.
Asked by counsel about the profit which the board made from this arrangement, Mr John McStay, a financial expert giving evidence for the BTSB, said it had made money, but there were also costs involved in harvesting the plasma.
Mr McStay said virtually all BTSB documents he had seen discussed the costs of custom fractionation - the practice of collecting Irish plasma and shipping it abroad to be made into clotting agents - but not the financial benefits which would accrue from it.
"It seems to me it was driven by the need and requirement to achieve self-sufficiency," he said.
Mr Durcan asked if he was suggesting the board had got involved in custom fractionation without investigating whether it would make a profit or loss. Mr McStay said he only saw one letter from a potential fractionator which referred to financial benefit.
Figures presented to the tribunal showed "blood derivatives", which include factor concentrates, and the plasma collected in the State, accounted for over 20 per cent of the board's turnover in 1986, double that of the previous year. Counsel said this highlighted the advantages that had "kicked in" from the Travenol deal.
Mr McStay pointed out that the BTSB still made losses in 1985 and 1986 as any money made was consumed in the running of the organisation. "The profit did not stay with any one individual," he said.
He said it was impossible to give a specific answer on the profit made from the arrangement with Travenol, as other costs were involved. However, he added that he could look at the figures more closely. The tribunal chairwoman, Judge Alison Lindsay, said this would be a useful exercise.
The tribunal heard that another pharmaceutical firm, Armour, also offered to custom fractionate Irish plasma but it wanted to charge the BTSB for the clotting factors it made from the plasma.