StemLife Malaysia hosts 4th Annual Asia Pacific Cord Blood Bank Consortium Meeting (APCBBC 2006)

In above photo (L-R): Gwendolene Yeo (Representative- Cordlife Singapore), Chris Tsai (Founder- BabyBanks, Taiwan), Gordon Milliken (Founder- Cryosite, Australia), Sharon Low (Founder- StemLife, Malaysia), Keith Mo (Representative- Cryolife, Hong Kong), Han Seong Bang (Representative- Lifecord, Korea)


1st APCBBC MEETING HOSTED IN MALAYSIA

On the 7th of September, representatives and founders from leading cord blood stem cell banks met up for the annual industry meeting in Kuala Lumpur, hosted by StemLife. The consortium which has been actively meeting up since 2004 is the first Asia Pacific Cord Blood Bank Consortium to have been founded by cord blood banks in this region. Members include Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia. Based on processing and banking standards and success in proper business management, participating cord blood stem cell banks presented their updates and shared their challenges and experiences for the past year.

Entitled "Stem Cells: A Global Phenomenon and Medical Revolution in Asia", all members are from very different countries with a myriad of languages, cultures, varying stages of scientific progress and healthcare facilities. Nonetheless, the presence and success of cord blood stem cell banking indicates that Asia has a healthy market for this service and the related treatments that stem cells bring. Whilst the US and Europe have invested themselves in research and mired themselves in debating what type of stem cells to fund, Asia is making progress in educating local audiences in more than 7 languages about what stem cells are already available for collection and with clear and proven evidence of therapy. All Consortium members believe that this will only grow as the benefits of stem cell applications increases over time and are pro-actively taking steps to explore ways to progress and contribute to the expansion of this industry.

It was a superb meeting and StemLife is proud to be the host this year. StemLife has also been appointed by the committee as the secretariat to the Consortium which I will chair. We're in the process of setting up a recruitment process for other banks to participate and actively contribute to the knowledge and credibility of the industry. If you wish to join us, please write to me and I'll put the application forward to the board of governors.

You can read the press release here.