Cordlife resumes services after facilities, operations overhaul

Cordlife resumed its cord blood banking services on Sept 15 after a hiatus of 92 months, during which it overhauled its facilities and operations to meet the standards required by the Ministry of Health (MOH).

- Salma Khalik

The green light it has received from the ministry comes with caveats, including being allowed to receive no more than 30 new cord blood units (CBUS) a month for the first six months. This is less than 10 per cent of the roughly 400 units a month that it used to get.

The majority of parents sign up to bank their babies' cord blood in the third trimester of pregnancy, so it will likely be a month or so before Cordlife starts receiving new CBUS when the babies are born.

MOH shut down the firm's operations on Nov 30, 2023, after finding that seven of its 22 storage tanks had been exposed to temperatures above minus 150 deg C, which could result in damage to the stem cells in the cord blood, making them non-viable.

Cord blood contains stem cells that may be used to treat blood diseases and some cancers, such as leukaemia and lymphoma, should the baby develop these illnesses later in life.

Of the 35 units withdrawn from Cordlife since it was set up in 2001 as the first cord blood bank in Singapore, 15 were taken out as the parents wanted to use the cord blood to treat the child's autism, while 11 units were used for cerebral palsy and five for leukaemia.

Group executive director Chen Xiaoling said the company has already received a few new customers, who signed up on Sept 16.