Dive Brief:
- Croydon National Health Services Trust—a UK government institution—has signed a deal with Precious Cell Miracles, part of Precious Cell Group, in which the latter firm will provide services related to collecting, processing, and storing stem cells extracted from umbilical cord blood and tissue in the hospital.
- The partnership will not cost the UK's NHS any money.
- Precious Cell Miracle would also like to implement collection and storage sites at 90 other trusts around the UK.
Dive Insight:
At the moment, the UK’s cord-blood banking status is not up to par with many other nations in Europe. Not only does the UK have fewer stem-cell banking and storage centers compared with other countries—its stem-cell technology research also comes up short. Precious Cell Miracle wants to change that.
Although many key opinion leaders in the scientific community consider stem-cell science groundbreaking and a potential basis for breakthrough treatments for conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, others remain skeptical. Nonetheless, the optimism greatly outweighs skepticism. The UK’s goal is to have 50,000 stem cells banked by 2016 and to advance cord-blood stem cell and general stem cell research.