Blog | BioInformant

Opportunities and Threats within the Global Cord Blood Banking Market

October 10, 2017 By Cade Hildreth, Founder & President Leave a Comment

Over the past five years, the global cord blood banking market has substantially matured and consolidated. This has created both serious threats and novel opportunities for the industry. Serious threats to the industry include low rates of utilization for stored cord blood, expensive cord blood transplantation procedures, difficulty educating obstetricians about cellular therapies, and an increasing trend toward industry consolidation.

Marketing pressures are also impacting the industry, with the term “cord blood” being one of the 20 most expensive search terms on Google. Winning online traffic through Google AdWords for the search phrase “Cord Blood” now costs $45.87 in the U.S. When all locations are allowed, the cost for acquiring online traffic through Google AdWords for the phrase “Cord Blood” is $32.91. [Read more…]

Global Forces within the Cord Blood Banking Industry

October 9, 2017 By Cade Hildreth, Founder & President Leave a Comment

Today, cord blood banks exist in every developed country, as well as within most developing nations. With approximately 450 companies marketing cord blood banking services worldwide, maturation of the market means that each company is fighting harder for market share. While the U.S. cord blood banking industry is the most mature cord blood banking market in the world, Asia is extremely close behind and growing more quickly than the U.S. market.

In 2016, Sanpower Group and its subsidiary Nanjing Cenbest announced the acquisition of China Cord Blood Corporation (NYSE:CO) and Shandong Cord Blood Bank, positioning it to hold four licenses out of the only seven issued provincial-level cord blood bank licenses in China. According to the company, Sanpower Group has “reserved 800,000 cord blood samples at home, and the associated reserves nearly amount to 1,100,000 when counting in the Cordlife reserves across various Southeast Asian countries and regions.”[1]

This positions Sanpower Group and its subsidiary Nanjing Cenbest as the world’s largest cord blood banking operator not only in China and Southeast Asia, but in the world.

Currently, the largest cord blood bank in the United States, Cord Blood Registry, reports to have nearly 700,000 cord blood and tissue units in storage, positioning it substantially behind Sanpower Group. Within China, Sanpower Group reports to control approximately 800,000 cord blood samples. Therefore, Sanpower Group leads CBR by 100,000 units, or 14.2% (800,000 / 700,000 = 1.142), respectively. With CBR controlling more than 50% of the market share in the U.S. and Sanpower Group controlling more than 50% of the market share in China, these two entities are the largest cord blood operators in the world. [Read more…]

Pluristem Lands $27 Million in Non-Dilutive Funding for its Advanced-Stage Cell Therapies

October 5, 2017 By Cade Hildreth, Founder & President Leave a Comment

Non-dilutive funding, in substantial amounts, is something nearly all biotechnology companies want, and few get. Although small grants from various government agencies like the NIH are helpful, and are available to a larger number of biotechs, Pluristem Therapeutics (Nasdaq:PSTI) has accomplished something quite unique in the last year as the recipient, of three awards totaling nearly $25 million from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program as well as $2.4 million in smaller grants from Israel. A majority of these funds are aimed at bringing Pluristem’s Phase III assets to market and to better predict outcomes of cell therapy treatments.

Pluristem’s lead asset, its PLX-PAD cell therapy, is currently in a multinational pivotal Phase III study for the treatment of critical limb ischemia (CLI) in 250 patients with CLI Rutherford Category 5 who are unsuitable for revascularization. These patients have very few remaining treatments options and will most likely be headed for amputation. Cell therapy may be the answer. The U.S. FDA has given Pluristem Fast Track Designation in this indication, while the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has selected the PLX-PAD program in CLI for its Adaptive Pathways project, the goal of which is to shorten time to market for innovative medicines. Europe gave the PLX-PAD program in CLI one more boost with the award of $8 million last August from the EU’s Horizon 2020 program, Europe’s largest research and innovation program. Clearly, the Europeans are eager for a novel cell therapy to treat CLI and they are banking on Pluristem to bring it to market quickly. [Read more…]

Be The Match BioTherapies Launches New Technology Platform for Cell Therapy Supply Chain Management

October 5, 2017 By Cade Hildreth, Founder & President Leave a Comment

Software to improve the end-to-end supply chain management of autologous cell therapies leverages parent company’s 30-year experience managing stem cell transplants worldwide

MINNEAPOLIS, October 4, 2017 – Be The Match BioTherapies^®, an organization offering solutions for delivering autologous and allogeneic cellular therapies, today announced the launch of a new, implementation-ready technology platform for cell and gene therapies in clinical development or poised for commercialization. MatchSource^SM is an ordering, tracking and delivery software for cell and gene therapies that was custom designed based on the software used by Be The Match BioTherapies’ parent company, the National Marrow Donor Program^®(NMDP)/Be The Match^®. NMDP/Be The Match has 30 years of experience managing more than 80,000 stem cell transplants around the world through an extensive network of U.S. and international partners, including more than 145 U.S. transplant centers and more than 80 U.S. apheresis centers.

NMDP/Be The Match began developing technology platforms to manage the collection and delivery of life-saving allogeneic stem cells to patients at transplant centers more than 20 years ago, and has continually enhanced its software with new innovations that incorporate customer feedback. Today, the company’s software platforms support approximately 6,200 stem cell transplants and 22,000 cell and blood shipments annually. [Read more…]

AllCells Launches ERP System to Streamline Blood Donor Cell Collections and Vast Inventory of Hematologic Tissue Products

October 4, 2017 By Cade Hildreth, Founder & President Leave a Comment

October 04, 2017, ALAMEDA, Calif. — AllCells, LLC, a leading provider of hematologic primary cell products for global life science research and further manufacturing of allogeneic cell therapy products is pleased to announce the successful deployment of its new Oracle enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, effective October 2. [Read more…]