Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs)

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are a well-characterized population of adult stem cells that can differentiate into a variety of cell types (chondrocytes, osteoblasts, adipocytes, myocytes, and more).

U.S. FDA Accepts Biological Industries’ Drug Master File for NutriStem® hPSC Xeno-Free Medium

December 4, 2016 By Cade Hildreth, Founder & President Leave a Comment

Recently, Biological Industries (BI) submitted a Drug Master File (DMF) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for purposes of moving its NutriStem® hPSC XF Medium toward being certified for clinical applications. The product is a defined, xeno-free (XF), serum-free (SF) medium that supports the growth and expansion of human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) and embryonic stem cells (ESCs). [Read more…]

CariCord Partners with Singapore’s CellResearch Corp to Join “Global Cord Registry” & Launch Cord Tissue Storage in U.S.

November 30, 2016 By Cade Hildreth, Founder & President Leave a Comment

Singapore’s CellResearch Corporation has entered into an agreement with CariCord to provide umbilical cord tissue banking services within the United States. CariCord is the private cord blood and tissue banking partner of ClinImmune Labs at the University of Colorado.

As stated in the November 30, 2016, press release:

“CellResearch Corporation Pte Ltd (“CellResearch”), a Singapore-based company that specializes in stem cell technology, through its wholly owned subsidiary, CordLabs Pte Ltd (“CordLabs”), has entered into an agreement with CariCord Inc. (“CariCord”) to provide umbilical cord tissue banking services in the United States. CariCord is the private postnatal cord blood and tissue banking partner of ClinImmune Labs (“ClinImmune”) at the University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus (“UCAMC”).

This agreement extends CellResearch’s on-going collaboration with ClinImmune. The two groups are already working together to obtain US Federal Drug Agency (“US FDA”) approval for Corlicyte™, a drug for the treatment of diabetic wounds. ClinImmune will produce the world’s first Current Good Manufacturing Practices (“cGMP”) cord lining mesenchymal stem cell lines for therapeutic use.”

This license agreement also allows CariCord’s cord tissue clients to join CellResearch’s Global Cord Registry (“GCR”), “a proprietary registry for all clients who have saved cord lining stem cells with licensed partners.” The registry currently has 50,000+ registered clients, making it the largest group of its type in the world.

To learn more, read the full press release from CellResearch Corporation.

Cord Blood Market Trends, by Region and Sub-Segment

November 21, 2016 By Cade Hildreth, Founder & President Leave a Comment

The cord blood market is a complex international industry, composed of public, private, and hybrid cord blood banks.

These market participants store a range of varied products, including cord blood, cord tissue, and sometimes, related perinatal tissues and stem cell types. Rates of cord blood utilization for clinical use vary substantially as well.

Therefore, our approach to analyzing cord blood market trends is to look at it geographically, as well as by sub-segment according to blood units banked, tissue units banked, and clinical units transplanted.

A high level assessment of cord blood market growth is that North American is flat, North Asia and Southeast Asia (SEA) are growing by double digits, and Europe is declining.

We summarize these cord blood industry trends as follows:

Cord Blood Market Activity, by Region and Sub-Segment — *Click to expand (table courtesy of BioInformant partner, Kenneth Harris).

To learn more, read our recent interview with Kenneth Harris of CuraSense Advisors, in which we discuss growth rates and trends within the global cord blood banking industry.

BioInformant Market Insights Featured in AABB Cord Blood Banking Article

November 1, 2016 By Cade Hildreth, Founder & President Leave a Comment

In October 2016, an AABB cord blood article titled “Family Cord Blood Banks Adapt to the Changing Business Landscape” was released by contributing writer Laura Fusco.

Throughout the article, BioInformant was honored to have our quotes included to support and explain the current business landscape for family cord blood banks.

Below is the introduction to the recent AABB cord blood article:

“The industry has matured a lot. There was a relatively strong growth period ten to fifteen years ago, but during the past five years, the market has matured and consolidated,” said Cade Hildreth, President and CEO of BioInformant.com, a stem cell market research firm. “The growth of the North American market has really leveled off. It’s not a bad thing though; the surviving participants are strong, generally well capitalized, and storing larger quantities of cord blood units under more standardized conditions.”

Other contributing quotes from BioInformant within the AABB cord blood article include:

In addition to tissue services, some cord blood banks are now offering banking for adipose-derived cells, placenta-derived stem cells and menstrual-derived stem cells. “With multiple income sources, the banks can distribute the cost per client across multiple services, and everyone gets more value for the money,” Hildreth said. “The lab equipment and expertise needed to store various stem cell types are similar, so there is a trend toward cord blood banks evolving into diversified stem cell biobanks.”

Hildreth also noted that all stem cell types are stored for the same purpose—use in regenerative medicine—but as biobanks, the businesses become positioned to benefit from progress with one stem cell type, while simultaneously protecting themselves against scientific or clinical issues that could arise with other cell types.” [Read more…]