New Jersey hospital launches program encouraging expectant couples to bank adult stem cells

Livingston, New Jersey-based Saint Barnabas Medical Center officials on Tuesday announced that the clinic has partnered with LifebankUSA to launch a program devoted to encouraging expectant couples to bank both umbilical cord blood and placental stem cells, the Newark Star-Ledger reports.

The program plans to encourage expectant couples to store the stem cells in cryogenic tanks at Lifebank, a division of the pharmaceutical company Celgene, which charges up to several thousand dollars to extract stem cells and an annual fee to store them. The medical center plans to add comprehensive information about stem cell banking to its course offerings for new parents. Richard Miller, chair of hospital's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, said that stem cell banking "is not something we are going to push [expectant parents] to buy," adding, "We hope to make this part of their health care choice." Officials said they plan to more consistently train physicians through the program. "It's important in these programs to work at an efficiency and volume where the physicians that are involved in this process and selection become true experts," Robert Hariri, head of Lifebank, said. Miller said that stem cell banking is "for those who are willing to make that investment today for the promise of very exciting potential therapies in the future" (MacPherson, Newark Star-Ledger, 3/7).

Detroit News Examines Cord Blood Collection in Detroit Area
The Detroit News on Wednesday examined the "increased support and awareness" for cord blood collection in the Detroit area (Hayes Taylor, Detroit News, 4/7). Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) in January signed into law several bills that require creation of a statewide network of umbilical cord blood stem cell banks, as well as require the state to develop and distribute informational material about the banks. Under the legislation, the banks will receive and store donated cord cells and make them available to transplant centers for treatments of conditions such as Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis. Some of the inventory also will be allocated for peer-reviewed research (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 1/8).