Billionaire dynasty built on blood ends reign at troubled empire

In 1909, José Antonio Grífols Roig founded a blood-analysis laboratory in Barcelona shortly after getting his medical degree. — AP

OVER the last several decades, the Grifols family has turned the collection of blood – often from impoverished Americans and Mexicans looking for quick cash – into one of the world’s largest medical fortunes.

Now, for the first time in the Grifols business empire’s century-old existence, the Spanish billionaire family is no longer at the helm.