Cryo-Save announces public storage of umbilical cord blood stem cells

Feb 5 2007

Cryo-Save, the largest private stem cell bank in Europe, has announced today that on 30th January agreement was reached with Osidea, an Italian non-profit making organization promoting the public storage of umbilical cord blood stem cells.

In future through this mutual engagement parents will have the possibility to donate umbilical cord blood stem cells for the child's own use as well as for the solidarity or public use.

Osidea, the dedicated association to the public health and well- being of the Sardinian community, is facing high numbers of serious blood pathologies such as microcitemia, thalassemia and leukaemias.

Cryo-Save was selected and contacted by Osidea because of its professional storage activities, social responsibility, pan-European reach and research on adult stem cells from the cord blood. Through its pan-European presence, Cryo- Save is developing further collaborations with public stem cell banks in 18 European Member States and in 7 other countries.

For the first time ever parents will have the opportunity to choose private and public storage. In the case of public storage parents will be informed that the possibility now exists that the stem cells of their child might be needed for the treatment of another child.

"Being the largest stem cell bank in Europe with over 50.000 samples stored, we are fully aware of our social responsibility. Such partnerships between public stem cell banks and Cryo-Save offer a much needed solution to the shortage of stem cells in public banks," says Marc Waeterschoot, CEO Cryo-Save.

The additional costs for matching stem cells will be paid by Cryo-Save. Through the collaboration with Osidea, all relative data of the blood unit will be available in an official Register managed by the Association and accessible to all International Organisations in search of matching blood units for eventual transplants.

"Public stem cell banks are lacking sufficient financial resources to offer a full service to the public community. This collaboration between Osidea and Cryo-Save offers the first concrete solution to such restraints," according to Dr. Stefano Grossi, scientific director of Cryo-Save Italy.

Stem cells are the natural repair kit of the human body. In the last 18 years more than 7000 patients have been treated with cord blood stem cells transplantations in over 150 countries. The vast majority of these cases have been allogenic (cells donated from another person), but many scientists and medical experts believe that the use of autologous treatments (using a person's own cells), in regenerative medicine, will increase.

http://www.cryo-save.com/