SINGAPORE: About 5,300 cord blood units stored in a second Cordlife tank and dry shipper have been deemed “non-viable”, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Monday (Apr 8).
This is on top of the roughly 2,200 cord blood units belonging to at least 2,150 clients that were damaged in the first tank.
The company has been under scrutiny after it was revealed in November last year that several storage tanks were exposed to temperatures above -150 degrees Celsius, the acceptable limit for cord blood units. This was made public on Nov 30 when MOH said Cordlife was being investigated.
Besides the damaged cord blood units in the first tank, MOH had directed Cordlife to conduct further testing of six other affected storage tanks and a dry shipper, which is intended for transport and not for long-term storage.
“The results of the further investigations, which have been reviewed by MOH and its panel of experts, revealed that cryopreserved cord blood units stored in one of the storage tanks (Tank B) and the dry shipper are at high risk of adverse impact due to temperature warming events,” said MOH on Monday.
“Hence an estimated 5,300 CBUs from Tank B and the dry shipper are deemed non-viable as they are unlikely to be suitable for stem cell transplant purposes.”
MOH said the remaining five tanks have been assessed to be at low risk after being “adversely affected by the temperature warming events”.
“MOH’s experts have recommended that Cordlife test a larger number of cord blood units in these five tanks to obtain a more statistically significant result and further ascertain the status of the cord blood units stored in these tanks,” the ministry added.
Seven people have been arrested in connection with the case.