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Cordlife Group Limited (“Cordlife” or the “Company” and together with its subsidiaries, the “Group”), a consumer healthcare company catering to families and one of the leading pioneers of cord blood banking in Asia has reached an exciting milestone. This year, the Group celebrates their 20th anniversary – two decades of quality stem cell banking, innovation and advancements in the consumer healthcare industry.
Through their suite of services across the different networks and operations across Asia, this milestone marks the Group’s steadfast commitment to providing reliable healthcare solutions for the entire family and delivering excellence in cord blood banking and more.
Established in May 2001 and officially listed on the Mainboard of Singapore Exchange (“SGX-ST”) in 2012, the Group is one of the pioneers in the cord blood banking industry in Asia. Working with obstetricians to collect cord blood post-delivery, the fundamentals of Cordlife lie in the passion of its people who have equal emotional engagement when it comes to helping people live healthier, happier and longer.
Since its inception, Cordlife has been steadfastly adhering to the philosophy of doing the right thing for its clients. Constantly striving to provide value, they have garnered the trust of over 550,000 parents in Asia to date. Following its first successful cord blood transplant in Singapore in 2002, Cordlife has been committed to saving lives. The Group has worked cross-border with 23 healthcare institutions in 11 markets to help clients from six markets use their cord blood and cord tissue for treatment. Over the course of the last 20 years, Cordlife has transcended its boundaries geographically and scientifically by actively participating in clinical trials while also strategically partaking in stem cell expansion collaboration efforts in the region.
Drive for excellence is Cordlife’s core value
The healthcare sector has always been prone to waves of transformation and diversification. Equipped with a relatively large degree of willingness to make strategic and bold moves, Cordlife understood the importance of focusing on activities beyond its core functions. As a result, Cordlife expanded its services beyond cord blood banking to Cord Lining banking, followed by Eyescreen™ and OptiQ consecutively.
Cordlife is the sole provider of banking umbilical cord lining (UCL) which stores two additional types of stem cells- mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and cord lining epithelial cells (CLEpSCs) that can only be harvested and expanded using the patented CellOptima™ technology. Storing UCL allows for greater possible regenerative medicine in the future and also an added advantage for conditions that currently have no known cure.
Dwelling on the importance of safeguarding a child’s windows to the world, Cordlife has also invested in innovative photo-screening technology to close the gap in understanding paediatric vision. Thus, setting in motion the wheels for Eyescreen™, which helps parents identify visual problems in their children from as young as 6 months old. This is advantageous as it allows for early intervention including glasses, patch therapy and surgery for conditions such as amblyopia, myopia and astigmatism.
With increased screen time and lesser time spent outdoors during the COVID-19 pandemic, paediatric screening is of vital importance as experts foresee an increase in myopic children.[1] With the resumption of services post Circuit Breaker measures imposed in 2020, Cordlife experienced an increased take-up rate of Eyescreen™.
Understanding the importance of keeping the vision alive and as a natural progression of services, Cordlife collaborated with Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI) to launch OptiQ, Asia’s first corneal lenticule banking service. This breakthrough technology and medical revolution enable individuals undergoing certain refractive eye surgery using lenticular extraction method (e.g. SMILE) for myopia or astigmatism, to cryopreserve their corneal lenticules for the potential treatment of presbyopia and other ocular conditions in the future.
Cordlife’s people, ambitions, and the journey ahead
In a world fuelled by technology, Cordlife has also strived towards deepening its digital capabilities. To further serve the needs of its clientele and to strengthen community engagement, Cordlife has gone digital with the launch of its informative app, Moms Up. Bolstering their long-standing presence in lending support to mothers’ pre and post-partum journey, the app lends community and health support in various stages of motherhood. Moms Up is a one-stop solution platform that offers localised advice for women between 25 and 44 on conceiving, pregnancy and post-delivery support for mother and infant. Cordlife hopes to optimise its reach to potential and current clients alike to provide resources and seamless shopping catered to expectant moms and moms.
Additionally, as families increasingly recognise the importance of stem cell banking as potential protection against diseases, the app also provides a one-stop platform for clients to access their information and stay updated with the latest services available. Soon, clients can expect a wider range of easily accessible innovative lifestyle products and medical technology support services integrated through this app.
Earlier this year, Cordlife cemented yet another milestone through a partnership with SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre (AMC). The collaboration aimed at testing a novel technology expands the number of blood-forming stem cells from stored UCB in a first-in-man study in Singapore. This is the first time a home-grown UCB cell therapy is being tested on humans. The technology has the potential to increase treatment options for patients requiring stem cell transplants.
Commenting on the Group’s 20-year milestone, Ms Tan Poh Lan, Group CEO and Executive Director of Cordlife Group said, “Our Group has come a long way from where we started. Primarily, we take most pride in the confidence that we have instilled in our global clientele who trust us to provide world-class reliability for their family. The dedication we have channelled towards healthcare has been consistent and is also the driving force behind our achievements thus far. The road ahead is long and tedious but each member of our team, past and present has made a difference to the Group and today, I would like to commemorate their unwavering support as we reach this momentous milestone.”
Cordlife’s milestones, accolades and achievements
In the past two decades, Cordlife has expanded its operations and created a foothold across Asia. As a result of attaining excellence in its field with consistency, Cordlife has gained market leadership in most of the markets it operates in, including Singapore.
In their pursuit and commitment to quality, Cordlife’s cord blood banking facilities in Singapore and Hong Kong attained dual-accreditation by AABB (formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks) and by the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT).
The Group is one of the pioneers in private cord blood banking in Singapore and amongst the first in Hong Kong to have released cord blood units for transplants and other therapeutic use. In Singapore, Cordlife also became the first to release cord blood units for the treatment of cerebral palsy. In addition, in April 2013, Cordlife launched Sepax®2, a Swiss-made FDA-approved, GMP-compliant automated stem cell processing system that maximises automation while ensuring consistently high cell recoveries.
Cordlife also has a strategic alliance with CordLabs Asia Pte. Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of CellResearch Corporation Pte. Ltd., which gives the Group the exclusive rights to market their technology in relation to the provision of umbilical cord lining storage services, training and the transfer of the know-how, in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand.
In 2007, Cordlife was one of the 3 companies in Asia to be awarded the prestigious ‘Technology Pioneer’ status by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum for advancing the field of adult stem cell cellular therapy, cord blood banking and technologies. In November 2013, Cordlife was named as the “Most Transparent Company 2013” in the Retail & Household Goods Category. Cordlife was also honoured by Forbes Asia as one of the “Best Under a Billion” in 2015.
For more information, please visit https://www.cordlife.com.
[1] Ng KG (2020, September 15). Reduced Time Outdoors Due To Covid-19 Could Aggravate Myopia In Some: Experts. SingHealth.Com. https://www.singhealth.com.sg/rhs/news/tomorrows-medicine/reduced-time-outdoors-due-to-covid-19-could-aggravate-myopia-in-some-experts
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