Press Release

The new Sibling Donor Cord Blood Program will be provided at no cost to eligible families. This valuable service comes at a time when similar programs funded by the National Institutes of Health are reaching capacity.

"Families of children with certain types of leukemia and other inherited diseases for which bone marrow transplantation is potentially curable will have the ability to utilize this potentially life-saving resource at no cost to the families," said Robert Iannone, MD, a bone marrow transplant physician in Philadelphia.

Through CorCell's Sibling Donor Cord Blood Program, when a family with a child who might benefit from an allogeneic transplant is expecting another child, CorCell will facilitate collection of the umbilical cord blood at the time of delivery. CorCell is a licensed and accredited private cord blood company, dedicated to cord blood stem cell preservation since 1996. After collection, CorCell will transport the cord blood by medical courier to its laboratory where it is processed, tested and stored. If the cord blood is needed for transplantation, CorCell will then facilitate transportation of the cord blood to the transplant center.

By comparison, the cloned embryo contains its genetic formation out of the artificially implanted cell nucleus. In cases with an adult donor, the genetic formation is as old as that particular donor. The best example of this is the cloned sheep Dolly. At the age of five years Dolly already suffered from age related diseases just like her genetic mother who was twice as old. UCB stem cells, on the other hand, are collected at birth. You would start calculating the age of the cells from the point of birth, and therefore they are as young as possible.

Assemblyman Louis Greenwald, D-Voorhees, who sponsored recent legislation for stem cell research in New Jersey, said: "I saved my children's cord blood at birth with CorCell. I am grateful that my family is healthy and that I had the financial resources to do so. CorCell's Sibling Donor Cord Blood Program expands this once in a lifetime opportunity to families who are facing a life-threatening illness, regardless of their ability to pay. From a regional and national perspective this is significant and important to the health and well-being of our families. My hat is off to CorCell for bringing this service to families."

CorCell waives its usual fee of $1,350 and the cost of the first 5 years of cord blood stem cell storage to provide this program at no cost to a mother who will give birth in the U.S. and already has a child with a condition which may require allogeneic stem cell transplantation. The expected child must be a full sibling of the child who might benefit from a cord blood transplant.

The Sibling Donor Cord Blood Program also is supported by Independence Blue Cross, which has a majority ownership interest in CorCell "Independence Blue Cross has long offered our members' access to CorCell and the potentially life-saving service it offers to preserve a baby's umbilical cord blood," said G. Fred DiBona, Jr., President and CEO of IBC. "With the implementation of its national sibling donor program, CorCell expands its service to parents who may have a child facing a life-threatening illness, but could not afford to save this precious resource. It's truly an invaluable service."

About CorCell
CorCell, headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is a national leader in private family cord blood banking and stores its cord blood collections in its internationally known, AABB accredited facility, which has transplanted 23 cord blood units to date. For more information contact Marcia Laleman at 1-215-599-8401 or visit http://www.corcell.com. CorCell is a registered trademark.

Read more Press Releases by following this link: CorCell Cord Blood Bank News.