September 10, 2025 — In a landmark move for regenerative medicine, the European Commission has conditionally authorized Zemcelpro®, the first treatment in Europe to use expanded umbilical cord blood stem cells. Developed by Canadian biotech company ExCellThera, this therapy is only the second of its kind approved worldwide and represents a major advance in transplant options for patients with blood cancers such as leukemias and myelodysplastic syndromes. [Read more…]
Congress Moves to Reauthorize Funding for National Cord Blood and Bone Marrow Transplant Programs
Legislation would authorize $280 million over 5 years to support National Cord Blood and Bone Marrow Transplant Programs.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. House has introduced new legislation to extend funding for two cornerstone programs that connect patients with life-saving stem cell treatments. The Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Reauthorization Act of 2025 proposes more than $280 million in federal funding over the next five years, ensuring that these initiatives continue past their current 2026 expiration date. [Read more…]
EU Grants Approval to Zemcelpro, a Cord Blood–Derived Stem Cell Therapy for Blood Cancer Patients
In August 2025, the European Commission (EC) granted conditional marketing authorization (CMA) to Cordex Biologics, a subsidiary of ExCellThera, for Zemcelpro® (UM171 Cell Therapy), a personalized stem cell therapy derived from a single cord blood unit for blood cancer patients who lack access to a suitable donor for a traditional transplant. ExCellThera announced the news on August 27, 2025.
Zemcelpro is the first and only allogeneic cell therapy approved in the EU for this patient population. By leveraging ExCellThera’s proprietary UM171 expansion platform, the therapy enhances the viability and functionality of cord blood stem cells, overcoming a decades-long limitation: insufficient cell volume for adult transplantation. As such, Zemcelpro represents a major clinical milestone and a therapeutic breakthrough with the potential to expand the use of cord blood–derived cellular therapies in the EU and beyond. [Read more…]
Cord Blood Processing Method PrepaCyte-CB Leads in Engraftment Time
The cord blood processing method PrepaCyte-CB has been shown to engraft more quickly during the vital stage of post-transplant recovery than any other processing method. At the 15th Annual International Cord Blood Symposium in San Diego, California, in June 2017, the St. Louis Cord Blood Bank presented the median time it took patients infused with cord blood using either its Hetastarch or PrepaCyte-CB processing method to reach an absolute neutrophil count (ANC) of 500.
PrepaCyte-CB was found to engraft a full four days more quickly than the Hetastarch processing method (16 days versus 20 days) and has shown to be just as safe to the patient.1 Combining this data with those of other public data sources, PrepaCyte-CB was found to engraft more quickly than any other processing method. [Read more…]
Cord Blood Banking in Latin America – Interview with James Mendez of Cryoholdco
In this interview with James Alexis Mendez, we discuss the market strategy of CryoHoldco, a stem cell bank holding company that is the market leader in Latin America and one of the ten largest cord blood banks in the world. James Alexis Mendez currently serves as the CFO and Board member of CryoHoldco. Approaching 200,000 stem cell units in storage, CryoHoldco is more than 5X larger than any other stem cell bank in Latin America. CryoHoldco owns the cord blood market leaders in both Mexico and Colombia, and plans to expand into other regions of Latin America. [Read more…]
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