Cord Blood

Because cord blood present within a newborn’s umbilical is rich with stem cells, it can be collected and stored for future medical use.

PerkinElmer Pairs Whole Genome Sequencing with Cord Blood and Tissue Banking

September 7, 2017 By Cade Hildreth, Founder & President Leave a Comment

PerkinElmer Extends Clinical Whole Genome Sequencing Services

Provides Families a Novel, Personalized Approach to Managing their Health

September 07, 2017 08:15 AM EST — WALTHAM, Mass.–PerkinElmer, Inc., a global leader committed to innovating for a healthier world, expanded its Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) services to families that preserve their cord blood and cord tissue with ViaCord. This launch follows the Company’s recent introduction of its clinical WGS services.

Parents that choose ViaCord, PerkinElmer’s cord blood and cord tissue preservation business, now have the opportunity to benefit from a physician-ordered WGS test of their child’s DNA via a simple saliva test. The test examines a broad range of disease-related genes and provides diagnostic findings contributing to pediatric onset diseases. Additionally, the test reports on pharmacogenetic variants used to optimize certain drug selection.
[Read more…]

How are Public Cord Blood Banks Funded?

August 31, 2017 By Cade Hildreth, Founder & President Leave a Comment

Currently, it costs a public cord blood bank more than $4,000 to collect, test, and process a unit of cord blood for storage. In order to accept donations at no cost, public banks require income to support themselves.

This income can come from:

Federal funding
Selling donated cord blood units for research
Releasing cord blood units for transplantation
Combining public and private cord blood banking services into a “hybrid model”
All of the above

While there is no fee charged to a donor to collect, process, and store a newborn’s cord blood, some public banks do require other standards, such as HIV testing. If an individual’s health insurance does not cover this cost, the donor may be responsible.

Public banks also charge USD $15,000 to $35,000 if unit gets provided for transplantation to a patient at a future point in time. This is a stable and predictable method by which public banks cover their operating costs. [Read more…]

5 Cord Blood Investors Impacting the Global Marketplace

August 29, 2017 By Cade Hildreth, Founder & President Leave a Comment

Inspired by the acquisition of Cord Blood Registry by AMAG Pharmaceuticals for $700M in June of 2015, this post considers five cord blood investors that are impacting the global marketplace. It includes traditional investments, acquisitions, and contributions from wealthy founders. If you are operating within the cord blood industry, you need to know these market investors. [Read more…]

Gamida Cell Transplants First Patient in Phase 1/2 Study of CordIn™ for Severe Aplastic Anemia and Hypoplastic MDS

August 21, 2017 By Cade Hildreth, Founder & President Leave a Comment

This investigator initiated study is being conducted in collaboration with the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI)

Jerusalem, Israel, August 21, 2017 — The first subject has been transplanted in an investigator-initiated study of Cordin^™ for patients with severe aplastic anemia (AA) or hypoplastic myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) who have no available matched donor. CordIn^™ is produced by Gamida Cell, a leader in cellular and immune therapies for the treatment of cancer and orphan genetic diseases. [Read more…]

Cord Blood Transplantation with Dr. Milano of Fred Hutchinson

August 18, 2017 By Cade Hildreth, Founder & President Leave a Comment

I had the honor of interviewing Dr. Filippo Milano, Associate Director of Cord Blood Transplantation at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre about cord blood transplantation. In this interview, Dr. Milano speaks about trends in cord blood transplantation (CBT) that are affecting the global cord blood industry. [Read more…]