Singapore urges better stem cell bank supervision

Singapore has asked Cordlife, one of Asia's largest stem cell bank providers, to tighten supervision of its processes after improper handling ruined thousands of samples, an official has said.

In January, the Health Ministry found that about 7,500 cord blood units could not be used for transplants because they were exposed to temperatures exceeding the acceptable limit of below minus 150 degrees Celsius.

Cordlife filed a police report in April blaming former staff for "potential wrongdoing".

Authorities have said Cordlife failed to properly store blood taken from the umbilical cord from babies, sparking the fury of thousands of parents

Singapore's health ministry urged the company to "revalidate its processing method for cord blood units and enhance staff training and supervision of its operations more closely", Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State for Health, told parliament.

The company said in a statement on May 7 that it is boosting laboratory and technical manpower to prevent future disruptions, among other measures.

Cordlife CEO Ivan Yiu apologised to all customers and pledged to find ways to minimise the impact on them.

Storing cord blood is a private service that emerged over the past 20 years and is offered to parents when their babies are born, according to the Singapore health ministry.

US-based based Global Market Insights said the global cord blood banking market size is projected to grow to $20 billion by 2027 from $14.21 billion in 2020.