LINKS TO PRIVATE CORD BLOOD BANKS

LINKS TO PRIVATE CORD BLOOD BANKS


American Companies

Jump down for Foreign Companies or
American Charities promoting cord blood banking



Alpha Cord Inc.
www.alphacord.com
866-396-7283 (office: Atlanta, GA)
Alpha Cord is the only cord blood broker: they guarantee that parents will always pay less through them rather than other marketing outlets for the same laboratory. Parents should carefully compare the services provided by different outlets that serve the same laboratory. Currently serving:


California Cryobank Stem Cell Services Inc.
www.mycordblood.com
800-400-3430 (office + storage: Santa Monica, CA; tours available)
California Cryobank Sperm Bank is one of the nation's oldest sperm banks, founded 1977, and provides a wide spectrum of other cryogenic storage services. Storage of stem cells from blood is a completely separate division with a separate lab.
Licensed in NY.

CorCell
www.corcell.com
888-3-CORCELL (office: Philadelphia, PA; storage: Community Blood Services , Bergen, NJ)
Corcell is the oldest and most experienced of the outlets which use the Community Blood Services laboratory.
Provides shipping with temperature control and secure chain-of-custody. Representatives on-call 24/7. Licensed in NJ,NY.

Cord Blood Family Trust
www.cordbloodfamilytrust.com
866-821-9820 (office + storage: Stemcyte , Arcadia, CA)
This private bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of the for-profit public bank Stemcyte .
Stemcyte is one of the participating banks in the National Marrow Donor Program cord blood registry.
StemCyte uses proprietary laboratory processing methods which they call the "Stem Cell Optimization Process".

Cord Blood Registry
www.cordblood.com
888-CORDBLOOD (office: San Bruno, CA; storage: Tucson, AZ)
CBR is one of the original private cord blood banks, and has the most transplant experience. Licensed in NJ,NY.
CBR has a very informative website; there are also numerous feeder web sites which lead to them... a partial list:

Cord Partners
www.cordpartners.com
866-216-0366 (office: Los Angeles, CA; storage: Community Blood Services , Bergen, NJ)
Provides shipping with temperature control and secure chain-of-custody. Licensed in NJ.

Cryobank for Oncologic and Reproductive Donors, Inc.
www.nycryobank.com
877-CORDBLD (office + storage: Middletown, NY)
This is a combined bank for sperm and cord blood, but they are kept in separate freezers.
Licensed in NJ,NY.

Cryobanks International
www.cryo-intl.com
800-869-8608 (office + storage: Altamonte Springs, FL; near Orlando)
Formerly known as U.S. Cryobanks of Florida. Licensed in NY.
Cryobanks Intnl operates a large public banking program; they are the only bank which accepts donations from anywhere in the US.

Cryo-Cell International
www.cryo-cell.com
800-STOR-CELL (office + processing lab: Clearwater, FL, near Tampa; processed samples are split and stored: both in the Clearwater lab and shipped in Chart biomedical containers to Safti-Cell in Sedona, AZ)
Cryo-Cell has the largest inventory of privately stored cord blood in the US.
Stores in both: proprietary robotically operated freezer, and conventional dewars. Licensed in NJ,NY.
Publicly traded: Symbol CCEL was delisted from Nasdaq, but is now traded on the Over-the-counter Bulletin Board as CCEL.

CureSource
www.curesource.net
888-710-CURE (2873) (office + storage: Charleston, South Carolina)
The state of South Carolina is very supportive of stem cell medicine (see News Report of 25 Aug 2003.)

GeneAngel
www.geneangel.com
888-705-0726 (office: Los Angeles, CA; storage: Community Blood Services , Bergen, NJ)
A division of Geneticas Life Sciences, Inc.
The business of Geneticas is biological insurance: they bank the genes of endangered species, clone domestic animals, have a registry of human gene donors for the creation of designer babies, and bank the stem cells in cord blood.

Lifebank USA / Anthrogenesis Corp.
www.lifebankusa.com / www.anthrogenesis.com
877-LIFEBANK / 973-267-8200 (office + storage: Cedar Knolls, NJ)
These two companies are the same people in the same lab.
Lifebank banks cord blood. Licensed in NJ,NY.
Anthrogenesis has applied for patents on its proprietary technology to harvest stem cells from placentas.
As of 11/13/02, Celgene (CELG) acquired Anthrogenesis/Lifebank for $45 million.

LifeStor
www.lifestor.com
651-489-0420 (office + storage: Roseville, MN, a suburb of Minneapolis/St. Paul; processing at the Univ. of Minnesota Medical School, 3 miles away)
LifeStor is owned by the Genetics & IVF Institute , a well-known center for genetic and infertility services which also provides sperm and embryo banking. The cord blood division was previously known as Cryotech.

National Children's Leukemia Foundation
www.leukemiafoundation.org
(800) GIVE-HOPE (office: NY, NY) This non-profit charity is marketing private cord blood banking to families of children with leukemia for $825. Siblings of children with leukemia are eligible for FREE cord blood banking through the Sibling Donor Cord Blood Program at Children's Hospital of Oakland (510-450-7605).
Also, NCLF does not meet the charity standards of the BBB Wise Giving Alliance: see their Give.org report .

Newborn Blood Banking, Inc.
www.newbornblood.com
888-948-CORD (office + storage: Tampa, FL)
Emphasis on storage of whole blood, with no lab processing.

New England Cord Blood Bank
www.cordbloodbank.com
888-700-CORD (office: Boston, MA; storage: New England Cryogenic Center , Boston, MA)
New England Cryogenic Center, the largest sperm bank in North America, is the parent company of New England Cord Blood Bank.

Securacell
www.securacell.com
866-836-CELL (office: Canton, OH; storage: New England Cryogenic Center , Boston, MA)
Securacell is an independent company, not an affiliate of another bank. They use the same storage facility as New England Cord Blood Bank, but the two companies have separate freezers in the same lab.

South Texas Blood & Tissue Center
www.bloodntissue.org/umbilical.html
1-800-292-5534 (Option 8) (office + storage: San Antonio, Texas) mfisk@bloodntissue.org
Operates a donor registry which accepts collections from San Antonio area hospitals only. Operates a private bank which accepts collections state-wide. Open for tours.

Stembanc
www.stembanc.com
87-STEMBANC (office: Cleveland, OH; storage: ?) grabinski@stembanc.com
Stembanc has licensed the PharmaStem patent on cord blood banking; those patents have been revoked by the European patent office, but upheld in Delaware, USA.

Viacord
www.viacord.com
866-668-4895 (office: Boston, MA; current storage: Hebron, KY, outside Cincinnati; storage prior to summer 2002: Hoxworth Blood Center , Cincinnati, OH)
Viacord has become a subsidiary of Viacell Inc., a biotech company whose stem cell research has entered human trials (Dec 2003). Licensed in NJ,NY.
Feeder websites: www.cordbloodinformation.com


American charities that promote cord blood banking

Standards for Charity Accountability have been established by The BBB Wise Giving Alliance (also known as Give.org ), a merger of the National Charities Information Bureau and the Council of Better Business Bureaus' Foundation and its Philanthropic Advisory Service.

All United States charities which are registered with the IRS as 501(c)3 human health and welfare nonprofit organizations are required to make their tax returns, or form "990's", public record. The 990's may be viewed at Guidestar.org (registration is free), and the IRS provides instructions for interpreting the content.

Many public-service web sites voluntarily submit to accreditation standards. For example, the accreditations earned by this website are listed on the home page. The Journal of Medical Internet Research has published a Review of Internet Health Information Quality Initiatives (A Risk & J Dzenowagis JMIR 2001;3(4):e28) which reviews 13 different standards, including HON, URAC, AMA, BHIA, etc., etc. This report was commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO) and is international in its scope.



Babies For Life Foundation
www.babiesforlife.org
404-303-9187 (office: Atlanta, GA)
Babies For Life is a Not-For-Profit partner of Cryobanks International , which runs both a for-profit private bank and for-profit public registry. They are registered as a 501(c)3 human health and welfare nonprofit organization. Babies For Life seeks to "coordinate the efforts of women who wish to donate their baby's umbilical cord blood for people in need of a stem cell transplant".

Cord Blood Donor Foundation
www.cordblooddonor.org
800-747-3319 / 650-635-1456 (office: San Bruno, CA)
CBDF is a Not-For-Profit affiliate of the private bank Cord Blood Registry . They are registered as a 501(c)3 human health and welfare nonprofit organization. CBDF helps with referrals to public registries accepting donations.

Cord Blood Options
www.cordbloodoptions.org
619-465-CORD; ext.2673 (office: Del Mar, CA)
Cord Blood Options is a California nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public about the options associated with a newborn's cord blood. The founder of Cord Blood Options is related to the founder of the private bank California Cryobank Inc. . Cord Blood Options has developed educational brochures that can be ordered by healthcare professionals.

International Cord Blood Society
www.cordblood.org or NECBB parent page
888-700-2673 (office: Boston, MA)
The International Cord Blood Society is a Not-For-Profit affiliate of the private bank New England Cord Blood Bank . The goal of the society is to bring together clinicians and researchers to collect the most up-to-date information in the field of cord blood transplantation.

UCB Education Alliance
www.cordbloodeducation.org
615-907-7002 (office: Nashville, TN)
The UCB Education Alliance is a Not-For-Profit organization that represents an Alliance of multiple public and private banks. They are registering as a 501(c)3 human health and welfare nonprofit organization. The Alliance has developed educational brochures for expectant parents. The brochures can be downloaded from their website for free.

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Foreign Companies

Cord blood banking is rapidly being adopted all over the world. Yet, the legal status of cord blood can vary enormously from one country to another. In the United States, cord blood is treated like a peripheral blood donation, which can be sold, and unlike an organ donation, which cannot be sold. In the European Union, all body parts are regulated the same way, and none can be sold. In the Russian Federation, the government can confiscate unused body parts, such as post-birth placentas, and use them for research or sell them. In mainland China, political prisoners have been executed to provide organs for transplant. A separate web-page has been created to summarize the current status of Cord Bood Regulations by Nationality .



ActiVision Life
www.activisionlife.com.pl
Phone +48 (22) 8685-444 anytime; Email life@activision.com.pl
ActiVision Life SA is the parent company in Poland.
Lab and storage located in Warsaw, Poland, at the Marie Curie Oncology Center’s Dept. of Experimental Hematology, led by prof. Zygmunt Pojda.
Website in Polish, German, English


Baby Chord Securacell
www.babychord.com
Phone 800-665-4526
The American bank, Securacell, (office: Canton, OH; storage: New England Cryogenic Center, Boston, MA) has an affiliate in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

Basiccell
www.basicccell.de (not on-line yet)
Phone ???; Email webmaster@basiccell.de
Cord blood is processed and stored stored at the Klinik für Thorax- und Kardiovaskularchirurgie in Bad Oeynhausen
Located in Germany; website in German

California Cryobank International Affiliates

The American bank, California Cryobank (office + storage: Santa Monica, California) is setting up international affiliates. Each one has exclusive rights to its country; all clients in that country must sign up with CalCryo through the affiliate office. At present, all of these affiliates are shipping blood to the California lab for processing and storage.


Cells4Life Ltd. UK
www.cells4life.co.uk
Phone 44 (0) 12 7323 4676; Email info@cells4life.co.uk
Office + storage located at the Sussex Innovation Centre , a technology incubator partly sponsored by the University of Sussex, East Sussex UK.
This company is founded and operated by British medical scientists; they do not perform stem cell research.

Cells for Life, Ltd.
www.cellsforlife.com
Phone 905-472-0060; Email info@cellsforlife.com
Located in the Markham Stouffville Health Center, Ontario, Canada. Lab tours available.
Website offers a discussion forum moderated by the Scientific Director Peter Hollands, PhD, who is also a scientific advisor to the British bank CryoCare (UK) Ltd.

Cord Blood Bank of Canada
www.cordbloodbankofcanada.com
Phone (905) 943-4933; Email info@cordbloodbankofcanada.com
Located in Markham, Ontario, Canada.

Cord Life
www.cordlife.com
Headquarters and laboratory in Singapore: +65 6238 0808; Email info@cordlife.com
In April 2003, CordLife acquired Cytomatrix , a Boston-based company that specializes in stem cell expansion. Cord Life also has permission from the Singaporean Ministry of Health to bank adult stem cells from various parts of the body. "CordLife only deals with pro-life sources of stem cells."
Additional offices in:


Cord Partners Latin America
www.cordpartners.com/espanol
Phone 011-51-1-9721-9885; Email smonteblanco@cordpartners.com.
The American bank Cord Partners (office: Los Angeles, CA; storage: Community Blood Services , Bergen, NJ) has an affiliate in Lima, Peru, serving all of South America.
Storage in Bergen, NJ; courier shipping by AirNet

Cordon Vital México y Perú
www.cordonvital.com
from USA 011-52-(55) 5540-6141 Tel./FAX/Mensajes
from Mexico 01-800-123-2828 Del interior sin costo
info@cordonvital.com or infoperu@cordonvital.com
Serves as a direct outlet for two different American banks: In addition to the standard services provided by the banks themselves, Cordon Vital provides transportation 365 days/year. From Mexico, cord blood is delivered to the lab within 48 hours of birth. (current average time from birth to processing is 28 hours; 6/3/03)

CordVida
www.cordvida.com.br
Tel: 800-707-CORD within Brazil, else +55-11-3094-2673; Email cordvida@cordvida.com.br
Office and laboratory are located in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
A private company founded by Brazilian physicians, including the genomics chair at USP university, Dr. Lygia V. Pereira.
Markets only to Brazil; website in Portugese and English.

CryoCare (UK) Ltd
www.cryocare.biz
Phone +44(0)20 7486 4686 or Email info@cryocare.biz
Storage location at Cryo-Cell (now Cryo-Save) Europe in Mechlen, Belgium; but CryoCare is a privately owned company. Office located in London, England.
CryoCare also offers storage of adult stem cells, harvested from the customer's pelvic bone marrow.
The Belgian laboratory and CryoCare (UK) Ltd are participating in a clinical trial to test the use of blood stem cells from adults for heart attack recovery ( press release ).

Cryo-Cell International Affiliates
www.cryo-cell.com/a_affiliates.html
The American bank Cryo-Cell (office + storage: Clearwater, FL) has numerous international affiliates, with websites available in a rainbow of languages. These affiliates are licensed by the American Cryo-Cell, which means they receive training and technologies, but they are free to set their own pricing and marketing.


Cryoclinic UK Limited
www.cryoclinic.co.uk
Storage location at Cryo-Save (formerly Cryo-Cell Europe) in Mechlen, Belgium; but Cryoclinic UK is a privately owned company. Current offices in England and South Africa.
U.K. Tel 44 (0) 20 8549 5096; Email post@cryoclinic.com
S.A. Tel 27 (0) 31 2014 420; Email post@cryoclinic.com
Collects in bags but stores in vials.

CryoCord Sdn Bhd
www.cryocord.com.my
Office and laboratory located in Cyberjaya, Malaysia.
Tel: 6-03-8318 0000 (24 hrs); Email info@cryocord.com.my
Affiliated with IVF Technology Sdn Bhd, a company with more than 10 years experience in cryopreservation for fertility treatments.
Website in English.

Cryolife Cord Blood Bank
www.cryolife.com.hk
Trademark of Cell Therapy Technologies Centre (CTTC) Limited.
The first autologous cord blood bank in Asia; located in Hong Kong.
Website in Chinese and English.

Cryomedica
www.cryomedica.com
Tel: 011 7 095 139-4871; Email info@cryomedica.com
First private cord blood bank in the Russian Federation.
Located in Russia; exact location confidential for security reasons.
Provides banking throughout Russian speaking regions; delivery within 24 hours guaranteed for any major Russian Federation city. Stores in multiple Nunc[tm] cryovials.

Cryopraxis
www.cryopraxis.com.br
Tel: ; Email info@
Located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Founded by Dr. Radovan Borojevic, a professor at Rio's Federal University (UFRJ).
Website in Portugese and English (currently unavailable).

Cryo-Save European Affiliates
( was www.cryoc.com ); now www.cryo-save.com
International toll free phone 0800-CRYOCELL
The former Cryo-Cell Europe now goes by the name Cryo-Save:
The name change dates to 19Sept2003 and reflected a legal dispute pending in the Circuit Court of the Sixth Judicial District in the state of Florida. The European affiliate of Cryo-Cell International was refusing to pay royalites to the American company for their proprietary freezer, because they were not using it. As of 17Feb2004, both parties entered into an amicable settlement and will continue to operate as separate, non-affiliated entities . Cryo-Save is now part of the European holding company Life Sciences Group, NV, and its affiliate CRYO-CELL Switzerland AG, collectively known as "Life Sciences".

The Cryo-Save headquarters, laboratory, and storage facility for all of Europe is in Mechlen, Belgium.
Cryo-Save owns Maingen , in Germany, a biotech company working on methods of stem cell expansion.
Each European affiliate of Cryo-Save has its own name and price structure, and may be marketing in countries outside their home base:



Cryosite Limited
cordblood.cryosite.com
Free phone 1-800-220-410 or Email store@cryosite.com
The first private cord blood bank in Australia.
Cryosite Limited is a public listed company registered on the main board of the Australian Stock Exchange as "CTE".
They are an Australian biotech company which provides an outsourced cryogenic storage service for a variety of biological materials.

Future Health Technologies, Ltd.
www.futurehealthtechnologies.com
Tel: 0044 (0) 115 907 8610; or Email info@futurehealthtechnologies.com
Office + storage located at the Nottingham Science and Technology Park , a technology incubator next to the University of Nottingham, Nottingham UK.
Facility adheres to the British Dept. of Health Code of Practice for tissue banks.

HemaStem Therapeutics
www.hemastem.com
800-259-1831 or Email info@hemastem.com
Main office located in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Uses two laboratories: Canadian lab is in Toronto, Ontario, while USA lab is Community Blood Services , in Bergen, NJ
Website in English and French

Lifebank Cryogenics Corp.
www.lifebank.com
888-888-7836 (North America) or Email life@lifebank.com
Located in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. Publicly traded: symbol LBK
The first Canadian cord blood bank to be accredited by the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB)
Website in English, French, and Chinese

Lifecord
www.lifecord.org
Located in Graz, Austria. Tel. 888-888-7836 (from North America)
Provides private banking only within Austria.
Website in German and Austrian.

Lifecord
www.lifecord.co.kr
Headquarters in Seoul, South Korea; storage facility located ...
Tel. 82-2-552-9413; or Email postmaster@lifecord.co.kr
The first family cord blood bank established in Korea.
Lifecord uses technology licensed by the American Bank, Cord Blood Registry.
Lifecord conducts research on new therapies using stem cells.
Website in Korean and English.

Lifeline (Cord Blood Bank Lifeline Biotech Ltd.)
www.lifeline.com.cy
Tel: +(357) 7777 2000; or Email info@lifeline.com.cy
Located in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Scientific Advisory Board are all educated in England.
Website in Greek and English.

LongaVita
www.longavita.pl
Tel: +48 (91) 485 46 05; or Email pzieba@longavita.com
Located in Krakow, Poland.
Markets only to Poland; website in Polish.

New England Cord Blood Bank International Affiliates

The American bank, New England Cord Blood Bank, (office: Boston; storage: New England Cryogenic Center, Boston, MA) has a growing number of international affiliates. Each one has exclusive rights to its country; all clients in that country must sign up with NECBB through the affiliate office. At present, all of these affiliates are shipping blood to the Boston lab for processing and storage.


Polish Cord Blood Bank S.A.
(Polski Bank Komórek Macierzystych S.A.)
www.pbkm.pl
Tel: +48 (22) 436-40-50 anytime; or Email biuro@pbkm.pl
PBKM is an independent company; their lab and storage are located at The Children's Memorial Health Institute in Warsaw, Poland.
The President of their Medical Council is Jan Sablinski, M.D., Ph.D., and one of the seven members is Zbigniew Roger Mrowiec, Ph.D., of the Community Blood Services blood bank in Bergen, NJ, USA.
Markets only to Poland; website in Polish.

Progenesis
(no website yet)
Tel: 0-12 651 28 51; or Email Marcin Majka
Located at Uniwersytecki Szpital Dzieciecy w Krakowie: University Children's Hospital in Krakow (Cracow), Poland

Sino Cell Technologies, Inc.
www.sinocell.com.tw
Tel: (02)2511-2168 or service@sinocell.com.tw
Headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan; laboratory located in a dedicated area of the Food Industry Research and Development Institute (FIRDI) in Hsinchu, Taiwan. FIRDI is certified as an ISO-9001 facility.
Committed to collect from anywhere on the Taiwan island and deliver to the laboratory within 30 hours from birth.
SinoCell also collects donated cord blood for research and development. Research projects include: ex vivo expansion of hematopoietic stem cells, and directed differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells.
Website in Chinese and English .

Stem Cell Institute Inc.
www.stemcell.co.jp
Located in Tokyo, Japan.
Tel: 0120-346-257 or stemcell@stemcell.co.jp
Website in Japanese and English.

StemCord Private Limited
www.stemcord.com
Located in Singapore. Tel: (65) 6777 2002
First private cord blood bank in Singapore to be registered by the Ministry of Health (3/6/2002).
Website in English.

StemLife
www.stemlife.com
Offices located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; processing and storage facility located in Cyberjaya, Malaysia.
Tel: 24 hour hotline +6012 2050 165 or info@stemlife.com
First private cord blood bank in Malaysia to be registered by the Ministry of Health.
Collaborating with the Government of Malaysia to collect donated stem cells for a public registry. Partnership with the University Malaya Hospital.
Website in English, Chinese, and Malay.

Stem Sciences Inc.
www.stemsciences.com
Tel: (416) 730-0800 or info@stemsciences.com
Located in North York, Ontario, Canada
The first Canadian bank to use a BioArchive freezer from Thermogenesis
Stem Sciences was founded by Ayub Lulat, PhD , formerly the Director of R&D at the Canadian bank Cells for Life , also in Ontario.

Toronto Cord Blood Programme
www.mtsinai.on.ca/cordblood
416-586-8818 option#4
Located in Mt. Sinai Hospital, Toronto. Provides private banking to patients who deliver within Ontario. All registrations are done via telephone interview with a nurse.

VITA 34
www.vita34.de
+49 (341) 4879290 or info@vita34.de
First private cord blood bank on the European continent; located in Leipzig, Germany. VITA34 moved to a new building in Leipzig in Aug 2003; it features a glass laboratory where visitors can observe cord blood processing in a clean room .
Provides banking throughout area reachable by 24 hour courier.
The only private bank in the world which provides insurance to guarantee storage if the company goes out of business.
Website in German and English.

Vitacord
www.vitacord.at
Tel: 01/577 49 30 or office@vitacord.at
Located in Austria, markets only to Austria, website in German.



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Copyright 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Frances Verter