Cell Care

Cell Care started as an Australian owned private company that was formed by bringing together Australia’s two original cord blood banks, Biocell and Cellsense. Eventually, Cell Care has become Australia's only family cord blood bank, after acquiring Cryosite of Sydney in July 2018. Since Oct. 2018, the majority investor in Cell Care is CHAMP private equity, but the Cell Care is still run by the same Australian team with a background in maternity produucts. Cell Care has staff available 24/7 to assist with enquiries.

Collection Kit

Cell Care collects cord blood using gravity feed collection into a specialised cord blood collection bag. The bag provided is operating theatre sterile to facilitate C-Section use. The cord tissue collection kit contains all the equipment required to collect cord tissue and safely transport it back to the laboratory for processing and storage.

Transportation container

Cell Care uses a purpose-designed and validated insulated courier pack containing temperature stabilisers to ensure that the cells are transported at the required temperature. The pack includes a data-logger which monitors the temperature of the cord blood or cord blood + tissue and keeps a detailed log of transport temperatures.

Shipping Info

Once the Cord Blood or Cord Blood + Tissue has been collected, parents are required to contact Cell Care. Cell Care then arranges for the Cord Blood or Cord Blood + Tissue to be collected from the hospital and transported to Cell Care’s laboratory using a specialist medical courier, ensuring that processing occurs within 36 hours of birth. Real-time tracking during transit to the laboratory ensures that Cell Care knows exactly where the Cord Blood or Cord Blood + Tissue is at all times after leaving the hospital.

As soon as the Cord Blood or Cord Blood + Tissue is received at the processing laboratory, Cell Care sends an SMS to the parents notifying them of its arrival.

Following successful processing and storage, Cell Care provides the client with a Certificate of Storage and the mother’s obstetrician or attending doctor with confirmation of collection and details for their records.

Shipping is included in the price.

Processing Method

Cord blood processing is performed using the Optipress volume reduction method. This results in a red cell reduced stem cell product.

Components Stored

The stem cells are held in the buffy coat layer which is separated from the rest of the blood and stored together with a number of individual aliquots that can be used for future testing.

Storage Method

Final storage is in two individual blood bags in the vapour phase of cryogenic nitrogen.

Licensing & Accreditation

Cell Care has a Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) Licence to collect, process, store and release cord blood for all members of the family. The laboratory is cGMP compliant.

Clinical Experience

Supporting the development of science in the field of cellular therapies is one of the core aims of Cell Care:

Cell Care is working with a team from The Children's Hospital at Westmead (Sydney, Australia) to examine the impact of autologous cord blood treatment to prevent the development of type 1 diabetes in at-risk children.
Cell Care is also supporting a cerebral palsy clinical trial conducted by the Monash Institute of Medical Research (Melbourne, Australia) to investigate the impact of sibling cord blood on children diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

Insurance

Cell Care is a strong Australian company with low debt levels. Cell Care owns its premises and equipment used to process and store cells. In the very unlikely event that Cell Care is unable to provide storage services at some time in the future, clients would be able to transfer their cells to another provider of storage services without losing any money on a prepaid storage contract.

Community Service

Cell Care has several support programs for families in need.

If a full sibling of the expected baby has a blood cancer, then Cell Care offers FREE cord blood banking and free storage under their Malignancies collection program.
If a full sibling of the expected baby has cerebral palsy, and is up to age 12, then Cell Care offers FREE cord blood banking and free storage under their Cerebral Palsy Sibling Cord Blood collection program.
For any other situation where the family anticipates that the cord blood will be needed for therapy, the client's obstetrician or doctor may apply to Cell Care for a subsidy on behalf of the patient. This program will accomodate other transplantable diseases and special circumstances, with the amount of the subsidy at the discretion of Cell Care.

Prices

Cell Care seeks to make cord banking options affordable, whether you choose Cord Blood or Cord Blood + Tissue. Cell Care’s pricing is made up of two parts:

First, a processing fee that includes collection kit, transport (other than remote locations), laboratory processing, serology testing and cryopreservation. Parents can choose a monthly payment plan that spreads the processing fee over 12 months, starting up to 6 months following the birth.
Second, a storage fee is payable annually starting 6 months after birth, for as long as you (or your child) choose to keep the cells or until they are withdrawn from storage for use in a treatment. The storage fee is adjusted annually for CPI.

Additional advantages of Cell Care prices:

Cell Care prices are the same throughout Australia; there are no additional charges if you live outside the major cities.
Discounts are available for: blocks of pre-paid storage, birth of multiple babies, and returning clients.
A pro-rata refund will be made for any unused period of storage if cells are withdrawn for treatment.
There are no costs for retrieving cells for treatment inside Australia.
For any queries about pricing please call 1800 071 075 (Toll Free)

Service	Cord Blood	Cord Blood + Tissue
Processing fee	$1950	$2895
Storage fee	$210 pa	$370 pa

Extra charge for trained cord blood collector:
For most patients in a private hospital, their obstetricians will carry out the collection. However, if you are having your baby in a public hospital, or for some other reason your doctor is unable to carry out the collection, you can arrange for one of Cell Care’s trained collectors to attend the birth and carry out the collection of your baby’s cord blood. This service is available 24/7 and costs $275 (or $25 per month if added to the monthly payment plan) for cord blood collection or $325 (or $30 per month if added to the monthly payment plan) for Cord Blood + Tissue collection.

Additional Services

In April 2012, Cell Care became the first Australian cord bank to offer cord tissue banking to families. Cord tissue banking allows families to collect and preserve a segment of the umbilical cord, which is a rich source of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), a type of stem cell that assists in building bone, cartilage and connective tissue as well as mediating the body’s inflammatory response to damaged or injured cells. MSCs are currently being researched for use in treating a wide range of conditions including heart disease, stroke, bone disease and injury, and autoimmune diseases (like type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis). MSCs are needed for building connective tissue, so another potential treatment application may be for common joint and sports injuries.

This population of stem cells is a preferred source for current research in regenerative medicine because these cells have demonstrated the ability to develop into all of the major cell types in the body and help heal injured tissue. Collecting both types of newborn stem cells will provide an individual a more diverse cellular resource for potential future use as medical research in regenerative therapies using stem cells advances.

The science around cord tissue is a young and rapidly evolving field. Researchers are continuing to discover unique cell types within the cord and are investigating the use of specific types of stem cells for specific applications. Each of these cell types represents a potentially unique therapeutic product. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are an increasing focus of regenerative medicine research, with numerous clinical studies looking at their role in emerging therapies.

Cell Care has worked closely with Monash Institute of Medical Research (Melbourne, Vic, Australia) to develop its cord tissue banking standard operating procedures to successfully preserve umbilical cord tissue. As part of Cell Care’s collaboration with Monash in the development of cord tissue, Cell Care has built a major new laboratory facility, which includes a special-purpose cell facility developed jointly with Monash and the Victorian Government's Consortium for Cell Based Therapies.