Another 5,300 cord blood units at Cordlife deemed non-viable

An estimated additional 5,300 cord blood units (CBUS) from a tank and a dry shipper at Cordlife are unlikely to be suitable for stem cell transplant purposes and have been deemed non-viable, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in an update on April 8.

- Lee Li Ying

More tests need to be done on CBUS in five other tanks to achieve more statistically significant results, the ministry added.

Cordlife expects to take a year for tests of the five tanks to be completed due to their complexity, said an MOH spokesman.

Processes at the cord blood banking company have been in the spotlight after it was revealed on Nov 30, 2023, that cryopreserved CBUS in seven of its 22 storage tanks were exposed to suboptimal features storage temperIt was previously announced that around 2,200 CBUS in one of the affected tanks, called Tank A, were damaged and rendered unsuitable for stem cell transplants.

The latest update comes after a third-party laboratory conducted tests on cord blood samples to establish the viability of 19,700 CBUs in six cryogenic tanks and a dry shipper (a container to transport CBUS at extremely low temperatures).

MOH had previously said that test results would be released by end-March.

In the media statement on April 8, MOH said the definitive way to conclude the viability of the CBUS is to individually test all the CBUS in these affected tanks.

"However, this is not practical as it would take many years, even decades, to complete all the tests.

Instead, Cordlife conducted sample testing through a third-party laboratory," said the spokesman.