· More than half of new CELLTREE^® cord blood bank clients subscribe to long-term storage
· Customer confidence of long-term option increases thanks to enhanced storage safety and expanded list of curable diseases treatable using stored cord blood units

MEDIPOST, a leading stem cell biotechnology company, today announced that cumulative storage cases/units at its CELLTREE^® umbilical cord blood bank has surpassed 250,000, with a cumulative number of clients subscribing for a 40-year plus long-term storage option exceeding 20,000.

Cord blood is the blood contained within the umbilical cord and placenta following a childbirth. It is a valuable source of hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cells, which can be used to treat various intractable disorders.

MEDIPOST said that since its first industry launch of long-term cord blood storage in 2010, demand for long-term storage has been increasing steadily with more than half of the new clients choses a long-term option in the first quarter of this year.

The popularity is attributed to the expanding list of curable disorders which can be treated using stored cord blood units, as well as growing public confidence in the safety aspects of private cord blood banks since the enactment of the Cord Blood Management and Research Act in 2011.

Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) conducts a review of local cord blood banks every two years, and CELLTREE^® received ‘suitable’ status on Apr. 17, following the agency’s latest 2019 review of cord blood bank operators.

According to data released by the agency, a total of 513,652 cord blood units (including 45,430 public units) are stored at 17 umbilical cord blood banks in Korea as of December 2019.

“Umbilical cord blood is being utilized as an important treatment option for the incurable diseases. We will continue to strengthen supervision to improve the quality and safety in cord blood banking to ensure they can be used effectively in the treatment of patients with incurable diseases,” said Dr Jung Eun-kyeong, Commissioner of KDCA.

“Based on the market-trust and our technology developed and refined for over 20 years, we have made every effort to build a more robust Quality & Safety Management System so that prospective mothers who choose long-term storage can safely store their newborns’ umbilical cord blood units for their family” said a MEDIPOST official. “As a leader in the cord blood industry, we will continue to actively promote the value of umbilical cord blood storage/banking and to prevent this valuable life resource from being wasted.”