Bain capital has bought an 80% stake in Plasma Resources, a British company that processes blood and blood products for hospital use. Some of the products are haemophilia and immune deficiency treatments.
Immediately, concerns have been raised on the safety of a product in the hands of a foreign interest. Lord Owen, the Health Minister raised objections by saying that such sensitive companies should never be owned by a company like Bain, or any private corporation, whose chief preoccupations are profitability and shareholders' interests.
Plasma in the UK, however, is imported from US donors, since the incidence of Mad Cow Disease, or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy.
Plasma Resources defended its decision citing financial distress. It also stated that the much needed funds would propel the company to new and better initiatives.
Another similar company in Scotland closed down due to insufficient liquidity in 2007. Such a move prompted Plasma to seek foreign investment.
The blood supply however, is a very delicate subject. The company furthermore had been bought out by Labour to ensure that the blood product would not be contaminated by Creutzfeld Jacob Disease, a human variant of Bovine Spongiform Encepalopathy, which can also be passed through blood, since blood is a product in part of the human marrow.
The objections, if they stand, would be directed solely at the possible inability of Bain Capital to forgo their capitalistic practices. The company, as some British politicians have warned, could simply try to squeeze profits from the company so as to be able to turn it around and sell it for a nifty profit. But to do so, something would have to suffer, either in terms of slashed personnel or through cutting corners in the production procedure.
Partial Source : BBC/ 7.22.13
No comments:
Post a Comment