Singapore cord blood firm to set up in Australia

Singapore-based CordLife is looking to establish a local cord blood facility for as a precursor to expanding Australian operations in stem cell (haematopoietic stem cells or HSC) research.

"At the moment we are still trying to establish a presence in Australia -- we are talking to the major establishments," said CordLife CEO and founder Steven Fang.

"Our priority is not to just set up a bank here and we are busy trying to let the doctors and clinicians see the value in what we are doing -- setting up a clinical and technical base. Banking is really secondary to what we want to do in Australia,"

Fang said the operation would be much more than "just a blood bank", and would develop into a fully fledged biotech operation rather than a straightforward storage facility.

"We are trying to be much more than a simple first-generation banking facility. We are not preoccupied with revenue -- although we have been very successful in the first stages of research and banking. We want to make therapeutics our key driving force," he said.

Fang asserted the Australian market had several advantages for a newcomer to the local stem cell field. He cited its status as a mature, developed market with an excellent record for clinical trials, plus the "exceedingly high standard of research" and its ability to support committed partnership agreements. He said all these were major contributory factors to the new office plans, which were in the last stages of development.

"We see Australia as being a self-sustainable centre, and have reached final stages of an agreement with a well-recognised establishment to be announced in the next few months," he added.

Fang said CordLife intended to expand its business activities into the therapeutic arena, particularly in the area of cell expansion technology.

Describing blood banking as a "secondary issue", Fang said the company was progressively introducing a new single-use device which would give scientists and clinicians the ability to grow and expand stem cells in an accessible and simple way.

The device uses a special NASA-developed metallic honeycomb to replicate bone structure in order to promote three-dimensional cell growth, claimed CordLife chief technical officer Soren Bested.

"Although cord blood is a beautiful [therapeutic] solution in many cases where compatibility and rejection would otherwise be a problem, the limitation is usually a lack of cells. An average collection can cope with a transplant for a person up to 46kg. That's bad news for big people," he said.

Bested said the company was working hard on expansion technology which he claimed would be the driver for stem cell business in coming years. "The [therapeutic] potential of stem cells is enormous; in 50 years there will be massive demand. But we need to develop the ability to expand cells, or we will just remain a 'biological warehouse' and nothing more. Our new technology patented by Hanry Yu has the ability to grow cells in a 3D environment, without the need for cell selection, animal serums or other external agents," he said.

The new Australian centre will, said Fang, work with both institutional and private organisations to move in the direction of stem cell research, but will steer clear of the murky waters surrounding embryonic cell work.

"We foresee no problems working on our current research in Australia as we are only working on adult cells," he said. "We see our role as helping to establish a growing use of stem cells in therapeutics. We will be working on expansion, immunotherapies, tumour suppression therapies and more.

"There have been a multitude of companies in the straight banking area that have come and gone, and we have learnt from them. That's why we are making sure we are heavily involved in research and development too," he added.