Cord Blood America (includes CorCell)
INTERNET: www.cordblood-america.com
PHONE: 888-326-7235 (888-3-CORCELL)
OFFICE: Los Angeles, CA and Philadelphia, PA
STORAGE: Progenitor Cell Therapy, Hackensack, NJ
ACCREDITATION: AABB, NJ, NY
COMMENT: Cord Blood America is a publicly held (Nasdaq OTCBB:CBAI) holding company which owns the subsidiary banks Cord Partners and CorCell, and has acquired the cord blood banks CORD of NY and CureSource of NC. Cord Blood America operates its cord blood business through CorCell companies, Inc. of Philadelphia.
SERVICES & DISCOUNT OPTIONS:
Cord blood collections are processed at the laboratory of Progenitor Cell Therapy. The transplant quota is mostly cord blood units released for transplants through public registries. However, Corcell has released 4 units from family storage for transplant (3 to the donor child and 1 to a sibling).
The laboratory processing uses sedimentation with hetastarch to separate MonoNuclear Cells from cord blood. Bags are used for both the blood collection and the final storage of the processed cells.
Progenitor Cell Therapy has FACT accreditation for cellular therapy products, but they do not yet have FACT/Netcord accreditation for cord blood processing. Progenitor Cell Therapy has applied for AABB accreditation.
Progenitor Cell Therapy laboratory follows cGMP (ie: cellular GMP) standards, which are above FDA requirements for cord blood processing.
Live customer support is available 24/7; parents or physician can phone during delivery.
Current (11/5/07) fees are $150 enrollment, $150 courier transport, $1500 collection and processing, and $125 annual storage, for a total first year fee of $1925.
Payment plans are available.
Charity Program: Sibling Donor Cord Blood Program was launched by CorCell Feb2004 to provide free banking to siblings of children with transplantable diseases.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
The story of Cord Blood America begins with the cord blood bank Cord Partners, founded in 2003. Cord Partners was a marketing company with offices in Los Angeles that used the cord blood laboratory of Community Blood Services in NJ. On 28Jan2005, Cord Partners went public as part of the holding company "Cord Blood America" (Nasdaq OTCBB:CBAI).
On 28 Jan 2006, Cord Blood America purchased the assets of the cord blood bank Cryobank for Oncologic and Reproductive Donors (CORD) in Middletown, NY. The 750 cord blood collections in storage and three dewars belonging to CORD were moved to the laboratory at Community Blood Services in NJ.
On 13 Oct 2006, Cord Blood America acquired CorCell, a Philadelphia company which has been marketing family cord blood storage since 1996. In July 2004, CorCell had merged with the German cord blood bank VITA34, under a German holding company VITA34 International AG. The acquisition by Cord Blood America severed the relationship between CorCell and VITA34. Cord Blood America also purchased the CorCell inventory of approximately 10,000 cord blood collections held at the lab of Community Blood Services. However, CorCell retained its operating name. CorCell has many partnerships with health insurance companies.
On 21 Aug 2007, Cord Blood America acquired CureSource, a company headquartered in Charlestown, South Carolina which markets family cord blood storage and had recently switched its lab from the Medical University of South Carolina to Community Blood Services in NJ.
In Oct 2007, Cord Blood America stopped using the laboratory of Community Blood Services in NJ and switched to Progenitor Cell Therapy, located nearby in Hackensack NJ. As of 11/5/07, none of the old inventory has been moved. At this time, most of their cord blood banking is marketed under the name CorCell.
Progenitor Cell Therapy LLC was founded in 1997 by Andrew L. Pecora, M.D., and Robert A. Preti, Ph.D. Dr. Pecora performed the first adult transplant of expanded cord blood. Dr. Preti has been the Scientific and Laboratory Director of Hackensack University Medical Center (HUMC), located in Hackensack, New Jersey. Progenitor Cell Therapy acquired HUMC in March 1999 and upgraded it to a cGMP compliant facility which is experienced in all forms of stem cell engineering.
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