Cordlife allowed to resume services at lower intake, reduces prices
newsare.net
SINGAPORE — Cordlife resumed its cord blood banking services on Sept 15 after a hiatus of 9½ months, during which it overhauled its facilities and operations to meet the standards required by the Ministry of Health (MOH). The green light it has receiveCordlife allowed to resume services at lower intake, reduces prices
SINGAPORE — Cordlife resumed its cord blood banking services on Sept 15 after a hiatus of 9½ months, during which it overhauled its facilities and operations to meet the standards required by the Ministry of Health (MOH). The green light it has received from the ministry comes with caveats, including being allowed to receive no more than 30 new cord blood units (CBUs) a month for the first six months. This is less than 10 per cent of the roughly 400 units a month that it used to get. The majority of parents sign up to bank their babies' cord blood in the third trimester of pregnancy, so it will likely be a month or so before Cordlife starts receiving new CBUs when the babies are born. MOH shut down the firm's operations on Nov 30, 2023, after finding that seven of its 22 storage tanks had been exposed to temperatures above minus 150 deg C, which could result in damage to the stem cells in the cord blood, making them non-viable. Cord blood contains stem cells that may be used to treat blood diseases and some cancers, such as leukaemia and lymphoma, should the baby develop these illnesses later in life. Read more