Cord blood banking in Europe and worldwide: factors of organization and sustainability

Abstract

BackgroundIn the public sector, currently almost 600,000 cord blood units (CBU's) in over 150 public cord blood banks (CBB's), and an estimated 1,000,000 CBU's is stored in over 200 private CBB's.Aims & MethodsAn overview on current international state of public and private CB Banking including an outlook on different concepts of hybrid banking (public and private CB Banking combined) is given. Possible factors influencing financial sustainability and economic viability of CB Banks, i.e. cell count TNC, and HLA haplotype distribution) are taken into consideration.ConclusionsBanking CBU's with predominantly high TNC figures is one way to improve the business model of a public CB Bank, with regard to the establishment of financially sustainable operations. Current recruitment practices of storing low TNC count CBU's with rare HLA haplotypes for the sake of HLA diversity should be carefully scrutinized in this context.