That's a very interesting stance. The CorCell guarantee is far from sinister or greed based it states: "Guarantee will pay the owner of umbilical cord blood stem cells $50,000 if the stored stem cells are used in a hematopoietic stem cell transplant and the stem cells fail to engraft."
If the patient or a family member needs the stem it's probably for a life/death situation... why wouldn't they want some reassurance if the stem failed CorCell would provide compensation to help them with paying for a replacement? What is CorCell supposed to say, "Oh well, sorry now scram."
The company is doing the next most reasonable step to aid the family. Provide money to find a replacement stem... it must offer money because as you know there is no guarantee a replacement stem cell will be available. Correct? If there is a replacement stem cell located it has a value attached and requires what to acquire? Money.
Umbilical cord blood used for HSC transplant
Umbilical cord blood is obtained when a mother donates her infant's umbilical cord and placenta after birth. Cord blood has a higher concentration of HSC than is normally found in adult blood. However, the small quantity of blood obtained from an umbilical cord (typically about 50 mL) makes it more suitable for transplantation into small children than into adults. Newer techniques using ex-vivo expansion of cord blood units or the use of two cord blood units from different donors are being explored to allow cord blood transplants to be used in adults.
It is used e.g. in children being born after preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for human leucocyte antigen (HLA) matching (see PGD for HLA matching) in order to donate to a sick sibling requiring HSCT.
Expansion voids the guarantee.
dianebRN, it costs $35k for the replacement donor stem from NMDP registry... how is the patient to pay for it if the privately banked stem fails? That is what the guarantee is for. To comfort the patient and family that will need Money should the privately banked stem fail... Problem?
Why hasn't anyone been outspoken from the medical community about the fleecing that is occurring by the NMDP at the moment a patient needs the stem for a life/death situation; $35k/cord hmmm?
AI
