• A guaranteed match for autologous transplants (where the donor and recipient are the same individual)
• A readily available supply of stored haematopoietic stem cells. This is a better option than having to do a national or international search which is costly and time-consuming given an already time critical situation.
• Lower risk of Graft vs. Host Disease (GvHD) for allogeneic transplants, a situation where the transplanted tissue attacks the patient’s own tissue.
• Ease of collection, which is pain-free and risk-free to both mother and child.
• Umbilical cord blood stem cells are younger, have a higher rate of engraftment and are more tolerant to tissue mismatches, compared to other types of stem cells, e.g. bone marrow.

• Replace and regenerate damaged or diseased bone marrow
• Treatment for blood cancers
• Correct genetic defects (sibling/allogeneic transplantation)
• Potential for cellular therapy and regenerative medicine

• Stem cell rescue reconstitutes a patient’s blood and immune system
• This is carried out after chemotherapy and radiotherapy which destroy blood cells
• Stem cells are infused intravenously into the patient’s blood stream
• Once in the blood stream, they migrate to the bone marrow
• They then differentiate into three blood cell types – red, white and platelets
• The differentiation initiates the regeneration of the patient’s blood and immune system

The list of diseases treated by stem cells can be found here.

Immediately after the delivery of your baby, the cord is clamped and your baby separated from the cord and moved from the birthing area. The doctor then collects the umbilical cord blood by inserting a needle into the cord vein, and draining the blood into a blood bag.

This procedure is painless and risk-free to both you and your baby. It takes about 3 minutes and does not alter the birthing process in any way. It can be done with either a vaginal or caesarean delivery.

Please note that the final decision of whether the cord blood collection should take place will always reside with your OB-Gyn or Doctor whose first priority is the safety of you and your baby.

Cordlife uses the U.S. FDA approved cryogenic storage pouch. This multi-compartmentalised cryobag has 20% and 80% compartments. This cryobag also has 2 integrally attached segments which are in compliance with AABB and FACT-Netcord standards. This dual compartment addresses the stem cell expansion programmes in future. That means that when this stem cell expansion technology is commercially viable, you can withdraw 80% of the stem cells for immediate use /treatment while continuing to store the 20% balance for later expansion.

The integral segments also provide the safety and assurance that additional product testing is performed on the associated unit thereby eliminating testing and cord blood unit mix ups. This is to allow for additional testing of the sample should it be required in the future, or for viability testing prior to a transplant. This storage pouch is made of a special material designed specifically to withstand cryogenic temperatures.

Your baby’s umbilical cord blood is stored in vacuum insulated cryogenic storage tanks, and are designed to remain at optimal cryogenic temperature of below -150° for cell storage over long periods. Cordlife uses MVE Anti-contamination Vapour-phase Liquid Nitrogen Storage System for long-term stem cell cryopreservation.

Vapour-phase storage is preferred over liquid-phase storage¹ as it eliminates the chance of cross contamination between umbilical cord blood units as compared with those stored in liquid nitrogen.

The MVE Anti-contamination Vapour-phase Liquid Nitrogen Storage System operates perfectly, even without electrical supply, and is 100% reliable and failsafe with no chance of robotic malfunction. Unlike other storage systems available in the market today, our tanks have never been recalled by the U.S. FDA or the manufacturer.

Over 99% of private cord blood banks also use only vapour-phase freezers. Presently, the majority of stem cell transplantations used cord blood units stored in vapour freezers.

Reference

1. Best practices for Repositories I: Collection, Storage, and Retrieval of Human Biological Materials for Research

You may still continue to store your baby's cord blood (with additional consent given to Cordlife), or elect to discard the umbilical cord blood unit.

This is because Cordlife conducts two different tests for Hepatitis B virus (HBV) on maternal blood, namely:

• Hepatitis B Surface Antigen (HBsAg)
• Hepatitis B Core Antibody (Anti-HBc (Total))

Usually, the attending transplant physician will make the decision whether to use an umbilical cord blood unit where the maternal blood was tested positive for Hepatitis B for transplant, based on various factors particular to the patient, the cord blood unit intended for use, and the availability of other HLA-matched donor.

Please call us at our 24-Hour Hotline (02) 470-1735 or 332-1888. Alternatively, you can also send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for our latest banking plans.

The continuation of storage of your child’s umbilical cord blood stem cells is of utmost importance to us. In the unlikely event that Cordlife ceases its operations, Cordlife may assign its rights under the Agreement to another provider of cord blood banking storage facilities as long as that provider meets the necessary standards at the relevant time.

The ownership of the umbilical cord blood unit will be transferred over to your child once he/she reaches the legal adult age of 18 years and upon the renewal of the agreement/contract. Your child will be prompted to continue storage thereafter at the prevailing fees.

Cordlife’s processing and storage facility in Philippines and Singapore¹are registered in Department of Health in the Philippines and Ministry of Health Singapore respectively. In addition, our facility in Philippines is certified by ISO9001:2015 and accredited by the AABB (formerly American Association of Blood Banks). This ensures that Cordlife adheres to the highest standards for private cord blood banking.

¹Managed by Cordlife Group Limited

• The first and only private umbilical cord blood bank in the Philippines that is DOH-registered ISO 9001:2015 certified and AABB-accredited.
• The only private umbilical cord blood bank* that released over 37 cord blood units for treatment of various diseases.
• The only umbilical cord blood bank owned by publicly listed company with financial stability required for long-term business presence.
• The only umbilical cord blood bank bestowed the prestigious: "Technology Pioneer" title by the World Economic Forum.

*This includes Cordlife and its associates.

Some umbilical cord blood banks are using two-location storage as a marketing gimmick to attract business even though there is no real value in doing so especially if the two locations are just within close proximity to one another. Furthermore, stem cell storage tanks are maintained at optimal temperature with liquid nitrogen so concern for any possibility of electricity outage is redundant.

Here are some of the reasons why most respected cord blood banks globally do not store cord blood from a baby in two separate locations:

• Provides no real value to clients
• Higher risk of accidents, contamination and mix up.
• Greater wastage of precious cord blood for testing purposes.