There was an outcry when Dan Poulter, a Tory health minister, agreed to sell Britain’s supplier of blood plasma to private equity for £200m. Health experts and politicians attacked NHS privatisation, demanding to know how ministers could ensure future supply if the UK had no control.

At the time — in 2013 — its new owner, America’s Bain Capital, promised to transform the Hertfordshire-based company into a “life sciences champion”. However, three years later, Bain sold it on to a Chinese buyer for £820m.

David Owen tried to halt the sale of NHS services JACK TAYLOR

Now America’s foreign investment watchdog has raised an alert over its new owner — and demanded that Bio Products Laboratory (BPL) sell off its US division, which collects blood plasma from donors. NHS patients have relied on blood plasma from America