Virgin Health Bank - UK

About

Virgin Health Bank was developed to meet the needs of families in the UK who are considering banking their baby’s cord blood stem cells and want the support of an ethically motivated cord blood bank committed to delivering high quality service. Unique for the UK, we offer you a choice of cord blood banking services: private storage in Family Banking service or public donation in our Community Banking service. Both provide an initial 25 years of storage

Labs and Locations

Virgin Health Bank entrusts its client samples to BioVault, the largest private human tissue processing and storage bank in the UK. Located in Plymouth, on the medical campus of Derriford Hospital, the Europe's 4th largest teaching hospital, BioVault banks cord blood donations for the UK National Health Service (NHS) and offers contract services to private cord blood storage companies. Blood testing of virology and microbiology is performed nearby at Derriford Hospital, which is CPA accredited.

Plymouth International Medical and Technology Park
24 Brest Road,
Derriford, Plymouth, PL6 5XP,
United Kingdom

Business Experience

Virgin Health Bank is an enterprise under the Virgin brand name founded by Richard Branson. They first launched cord blood banking in the UK in early 2007, with their unique Community Banking option that gives 80% of the collection to a public storage inventory. In Feb 2012, Virgin Health Bank entered a partnership with Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) NHS Trust, the first such deal between a private cord blood bank and an NHS hospital. The terms of the partnership are that CUH contracts their laboratory services to Virgin and has access Virgin's Community Banking inventory for research, while in exchange Virgin can market their Family Banking services at CUH.

Collection Kit

Supplies provided for gravity collection into a blood bag
Fenwal collection bag
Alcohol & Chlorohexidine disinfection supplies
CPDA-1 anti-coagulant
Collection kit is sterile inside & outside for C-Section use

Transportation Container

Container has gel packs
Container is validated to maintain room temperature under test conditions.
Container is guaranteed to maintain room temperature for a certain number of hours

Shipping Info:

Shipping arrangements are made by the Virgin Health Bank
Contract price includes shipping.
Courier available 24 hours 7days a week
Shipping within the UK is included in the base price

Processing Method

Manual cell separation by sedimentation & spin

Components Stored

Parents are provided with a certificate describing test results (cell counts, viability)
The component of blood that is stored is the buffy coat holding white cells and stem cells, plus testing portions

Storage Method

Final storage is in cryo-bags
Storage container is encased in over wrap
Temporary storage in quarantine freezer, then move to long term freezer
Freezer uses vapor phase of liquid nitrogen

Licensing & Accreditation

Unconditional UK HTA License number 22514

Clinical Experience

Virgin Health Bank has released one cord blood collection from its Community Bank which was used in a successful transplant in a National Health Service hospital in the UK.

Guarantees

Storage fees paid in advance are held in an escrow account.

Community Service

Virgin Health Bank’s Community Banking service enabled families to donate an element of the cord blood collection to a Community Bank for use with unrelated patients whilst retaining the cells from the first 5mls of cord blood for their own use. Stem cell units that have been donated to the Community Bank are made available to transplant physicians on a free of charge basis.

Prices

Family Banking plus 25 years of storage
Booking fee: £ 300
Processing & Storage fees: £ 1,395
Total cost: £1,695
Payment plans available upon request

Community Banking plus 25 years of storage
Booking fee: £300
Processing & Storage fees: £895
Total cost: £ 1,195
Payment plans available upon request

Additional Services

Not applicable

Prices with Additional Services