TISSUE BANKS: Competition for Cadavers Turns ‘Predatory’

Competition for dead bodies among Southern California's not-for-profit tissue banks has turned "predatory," with companies hiring lobbyists, threatening legal action and taking other measures to gain access to cadavers, the Orange County Register reports. Each cadaver can generate up to $220,000 for the not-for-profit tissue banks and for-profit firms, leading some to step up their efforts to obtain bodies:

Pacific Coast Tissue Bank hired celebrity attorney Neil Papiano and has threatened to sue the Orange County Coronor's Office, which currently has an exclusive deal with the Orange County Eye and Tissue Bank, an affiliate of Tissue Bank International.
The Doheny Eye and Tissue Transplant Bank in Los Angeles allegedly made two illegal campaign contributions to a county supervisor.
Cornea-seller California Transplant Services purchased the Web address www.sandiegoeyebank.com to block its chief competitor, the San Diego Eye Bank, from obtaining and using the domain. In response, the San Diego Eye Bank "locked up" at least 50 site names, including five variations of California Transplant Services.

Ventura County Chief Medical Examiner Ronald O'Halloran said, "They all want as much as they can get. That's why they squabble." With 54% of Californian deaths last year occurring in Orange, Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties, the area is clearly "an important market for the tissue banks," University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Arthur Caplan said. Last year, Pacific Coast lawyer Gioia Fasi complained in a letter to the Orange County Coroner's Office that Tissue Bank International had a "monopoly on cadavers at the county morgue." The company wrote, "We have been shut out from continued participation in the program, ... which we believe constitutes discriminatory and unfair business practices." When she received the letter, Chief Deputy Coroner Jacque Berndt said she realized for the first time that "this was really becoming a business."

Distribution Wars
The Orange County Register reports that "competition is just as fierce on the distribution end," as tissue banks rush to secure provider contracts with hospitals. New Jersey-based Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation managed to get contracts to sell processed bone to three California hospitals, beating out California Transplant Services, which previously supplied the tissue. CTS Vice President Marc Pablo said, "They've gone into various facilities and tried to strike a better deal. They've been very aggressive about getting more business." According to MTF President Bruce Stroever, the tissue industry brought in only $20 million a decade ago, but he predicts it will explode into a $1 billion industry within three years. Tissue banks, such as Pacific Coast, are taking notice, offering incentives to local hospitals that notify the company of fresh cadavers and advertising such programs online. Pacific Coast board member Richard Huber said, "It has nothing to do with medicine anymore. The bottom line is it has become a bottom line" (Katches/Heisel, 5/4).

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