Family Bank: CordSavings

About

CordSavings, created in 2012 in Switzerland, is a unique joint Biobank with state-of-the-art Swiss facilities specially designed for the umbilical cord blood and cord tissue stem cells, dedicated both for families storage and also available for the community service (allogeneic conservation).

Our laboratory activity is supported by experienced assistance that will not only assure the safe operation of the laboratory and preparation of stem cells for cryopreservation, but conduct R&D in order to increase the quality of the service.

To achieve its goals, CordSavings has built a great partnership network with prestigious laboratories (among them the prestigious Swiss Red-Cross) specialized for cell cultivation and/or analyses.

CordSavings also has a Europe-wide network of advanced medical genetics centers and is able to provide a wide spectrum of genetic diagnostic services.

Reconciling family concerns (your children and your family first) with public health demand: “Everyone treated regardless of his possibilities” is CordSavings’ watchword.

Labs and Locations

The CordSavings laboratory is situated in the French part of Switzerland within the biotechnology BioArk site and a short distance from the so-called Health Valley (north coast of the Leman lake). This location brings together a set of carefully-selected laboratories, facilities and services that meet the highest level of requirements and reliability available today.

Business Experience

CordSavings was established and dedicated to cord blood industry since 2012. CordSavings adopts the most advanced storage and processing equipment to ensure the life-long storage of its customers’ stem cells. CordSavings offers both cord blood and cord tissue stem cells banking services. CordSavings has a strong experience in export, treatment and storage of the stem cells and tissue with various partners.

11 February 2020 Announcement: CordSavings, a privately-owned cord blood bank in Switzerland, has teamed up with CSG-BIO, the company that acquired the CryoSave brand name. CordSavings will nearly double their laboratory in 2020 and will offer CryoSave clients the option to move their cord blood back to Switzerland.

Collection Kit

CordSavings provides a collection Kit that contains single-use sterile components inside, sealed in his own sterile package, with a quality certificate for each and every kit we produce, for traceability. The Kit is not sterile on the outside. However, in C-Section use, the components are placed by the medical personnel onto the OR, so the sterility of the collection is assured.

Supplies provided for gravity collection with 2 needles into a blood bag. The bags we utilize are from Suru, a company specialized in providing solutions to cord blood banks. The blood anticoagulant is CPDA, the industry gold standard. All components of our kit have the CE marking. For sterile working conditions and disinfection, our kit contains: Sterile drape, Sanitized wipes, Sterile gauze.

In the case of cord tissue collection, a 50 ml sterile tube with a large spectrum antibiotic and antimycotic agent is provided.

Transportation container

Transport of biological samples complies with strict rules. The CordSavings kit comes within a box of an isolating material, composed of an outer packaging of Isostrat and dense polystyrene panels side panels made of XPS, complemented with 2 gel packs. After collection, the biological samples will be sandwiched in between these 2 gel packs, inside the isolated box, sealed for protection.

The CordSavings transportation container is dully IATA validated, the sample is perfectly protected against sudden changes in temperature. The container will ensure a stabilized temperature between 10 – 30 °C, allowing for safe and controlled transportation and storage of the sample.

We send our kits with temperature loggers, one to track independently each kind of sample collected (1 for a cord blood only kit, 2 for a cord & tissue kit). The temperature loggers are in close proximity to the samples, from the creation of the kit until the sample has been received back on the lab. We have validated conditions for all these transport steps and we keep track of the real conditions of each sample.

Our kits are exempted from the 56th edition of IATA’s Dangerous Goods Regulations DGR, which means they are considered and labelled as Exempt Human Specimen. The company CordSavings has a UN 3373 ICAO table 1.4 certification, delivered by Aviasecure in Zurich, concerning the transportation of dangerous goods and its regulations.

Shipping Info

Shipping arrangements are made by CordSavings. The kit is sent roughly 24 hours after agreement is reached with the parents. For emergency cases, we have a dedicated courier service. The price of the service remains the same, regardless of the increased fees that we might incur. The kit is sent and retrieved by DHL medical courier as the default option. The parents just need to inform our company when the birth has taken place and we will deal with all the details of picking up the kit and returning it to our laboratory. Regarding weekends, we have personnel shifts to accommodate this, there is always a person available for this eventuality.

Processing Method

CordSavings uses only the best available alternatives for treatment of cord blood. The automated cell separation is provided by a SEPAX 2 unit, from Biosafe. This is the gold standard for separating the stem cells from the rest of the blood (especially the ed blood cells). We decide from the beginning that we wanted a clean, closed-circuit method, without additives, to allow for maximum purity and survivability of the stem cells on the processed sample. For cord blood samples that are large, we have developed a unique method allowing to produce two storage units of the same concentration. For very small but well concentrated samples, we will process and store the whole blood.

Components Stored

The parents are provided with a full report of the laboratory process, what has been done, numbers of each measurement made (cell counts including CD 34⁺/CD45⁺, viability, final volume, recovery rate, etc.). The stored cord blood stem cell samples are composed of a buffy coat bag with 2 partitions (20 + 5 mL) holding white cells and stem cells, plus 3 testing portions. We produce only samples that are free of red blood cell and we are not adding anything like HES (Hydroy-Ethyl Starch) to increase the yield of separation.

Storage Method

The final storage of the "buffy coat" of white blood cells and stem cells is in a bag, specially conceived for vapour phase nitrogen conservation tanks, encased in an overwrap of EVA, all protected by an aluminium canister. Each sample is identified on the bag and the canister itself is labelled with auto adhesive labels, specially conceived for these extremely cold applications.

Concerning the identification of the sample and the coded information, we use a standardized unique ID code = (code ISBT128 on behalf of ICCBBA) + Year + 6 numbers. We maintain complete traceability of each sample, having both electronical and paper records of the samples processed since the beginning.

Initially the sample goes to temporary storage in a quarantine zone on the freezer, then moves to the long term storage zone of the freezer. The freezer works with vapour phase of liquid nitrogen, kept below a temperature -153°C and it is monitored 24 hours/day under electronical alarm control by gsm-phone. Our premises are equipped with an autonomous power generator, in the event of an interruption on the power supply.

Licensing & Accreditation

CordSavings meets strict quality assurance standards.

• CordSavings is required to report such activities to the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) in Switzerland.
• CordSavings is inspected at least every 2 years by Swissmedic, Switzerland's agency for the authorization and supervision of therapeutic products (medicinal products and medical devices). They fulfill their legal mandate and work with partner authorities on a national and international basis by the FOPH for control, inspection and compliance with rules.
• CordSavings also follows the international standards of: Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) PICS-GMP PE 005-3 of March 2007 and PICS GMP PE 010-4 of March 2014 Guide for the preparation of medicinal products in Healthcare establishment).
• CordSavings’ laboratory has received from Swissmedic and FOPH authorizations for:
  • "Umbilical-cord blood" activities : for autologous and related allogeneic
  • Transplant Products - "Umbilical-cord tissue" activities: for autologous and allogeneic

Insurance

Customer samples are covered by an ALLIANZ damage insurance of CHF 8,000 per sample

Prices

To know more about our service offer, please call CordSavings at +41 24 471 4000 or visit the web site: www.cordsavings.ch  Instalment payment is available upon request, starting at CHF 90 per month.

Additional Services

We offer in addition to our basic cord blood storage services, the storage of umbilical cord tissue.

Our Biobank offers the new-born with genetic testing for the following diseases:

• Coeliac disease / gluten intolerance
• Lactose intolerance
• Cystic fibrosis
• Factor II (prothrombin)
• Factor V Leiden
• MTHFR gene mutations
• Haemochromatosis
• Beta thalassaemia
• Sickle cell anaemia