Cryo-Cell International

Last updated
Cryo-Cell International
TypePublic
AMEX:  CCEL
Founded1989
FounderDan Richard
Headquarters
Oldsmar, FL
,
United States
Area served
  • Chile
  • Costa Rica
  • Ecuador
  • El Salvador
  • Guatemala
  • Honduras
  • India
  • Mexico
  • Nicaragua
  • Pakistan
  • Panama
  • Peru
  • Republica Dominicana
  • United States
  • Venezuela
Key people
David Portnoy, Co-CEO and Mark Portnoy, Co-CEO
ServicesCord blood and cord tissue stem cell preservation and research
Website cryo-cell.com Investor Relations: ir.cryo-cell.com

Cryo-Cell International, Inc. is a cord blood bank. It was founded by Dan Richard in 1989. Cryo-Cell International is the first private cord blood bank to separate and store stem cells. Cryo-Cell is headquartered outside of Tampa, in Oldsmar, Florida. In January 1997, the Company's stock began trading on the NASDAQ Small Cap market under symbol CCEL. [1]

Contents

Operations

Cryo-Cell International’s facility is FDA registered, cGMP-/cGTP-compliant. Cryo-Cell International is accredited by the American Association of Blood Banks. Cryo-Cell International is [2] FACT accredited. [3] Cryo-Cell International is ISO 9001:2008 certified by the BSI Group. [4]

Cryo-Cell International services include the cryopreservation of umbilical cord blood and cord tissue. The company has also patented a method for processing endometrial stem cells from menstrual blood. [5]

In 1992, Cryo-Cell International and the University of Arizona signed a contract under which Cryo-Cell would provide state-of-the-art equipment for cord blood storage and use 'its best efforts' to expand the University of Arizona’s cord blood bank. In July 1998, a jury in California Superior Court in San Francisco awarded Cryo-Cell $1,050,000 for the University's breach of contract and a $120,000 judgment against the University and David Harris personally for improperly transferring customer lists Cryo-Cell helped compile to a competitor. The University's cross complaint against Cryo-Cell was unanimously rejected by the jury. [6]

In 2002, Cryo-Cell International was among eight American cord blood companies sued for patent infringement by PharmaStem; PharmaStem was awarded damages of $7.1 million in 2003 from Cryo-Cell and three other companies, the rest having gone out of business. [7]

The PharmaStem patent infringement lawsuit was ultimately overturned. In December 2004, a federal judge in Delaware reversed the last remaining aspect of a $7.1 million judgment from October 2003 for patent infringement against several of the nation's largest umbilical-cord blood banks. The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals held that the claims asserted in the lawsuit were invalid and the United States Patent and Trademark Office cancelled all claims on the patents in the PharmaStem lawsuit. [8]

In 2008, in Portnoy vs. Cryo-Cell International, the company's incumbent board was judged to have committed serious breaches of fiduciary duty in tampering with a shareholder election, preventing the replacement of the board of directors. [9] The court therefore ordered a special shareholders’ meeting at which a new election would be held. In August, 2011, Mr. Portnoy led a group in a winning proxy fight which resulted in the replacement of the company's board of directors.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Umbilical cord</span> Conduit between embryo/fetus and the placenta

In placental mammals, the umbilical cord is a conduit between the developing embryo or fetus and the placenta. During prenatal development, the umbilical cord is physiologically and genetically part of the fetus and normally contains two arteries and one vein, buried within Wharton's jelly. The umbilical vein supplies the fetus with oxygenated, nutrient-rich blood from the placenta. Conversely, the fetal heart pumps low-oxygen, nutrient-depleted blood through the umbilical arteries back to the placenta.

A cord blood bank is a facility which stores umbilical cord blood for future use. Both private and public cord blood banks have developed in response to the potential for cord blood in treating diseases of the blood and immune systems. Public cord blood banks accept donations to be used for anyone in need, and as such function like public blood banks. Traditionally, public cord blood banking has been more widely accepted by the medical community. Private cord blood banks store cord blood solely for potential use by the donor or donor's family. Private banks typically charge around $2,000 for the collection and around $200 a year for storage.

Cord blood is blood that remains in the placenta and in the attached umbilical cord after childbirth. Cord blood is collected because it contains stem cells, which can be used to treat hematopoietic and genetic disorders such as cancer. There is growing interest from cell therapeutics companies in developing genetically modified allogenic natural killer cells from umbilical cord blood as an alternative to CAR T cell therapies for rare diseases.

The Singapore Cord Blood Bank is Singapore's only public cord blood bank that collects, processes and stores donated umbilical cord blood for use in stem cell transplants. Its cord blood units may be searched for use by qualifying transplant centers around the world.

The stem cell controversy is the consideration of the ethics of research involving the development and use of human embryos. Most commonly, this controversy focuses on embryonic stem cells. Not all stem cell research involves human embryos. For example, adult stem cells, amniotic stem cells, and induced pluripotent stem cells do not involve creating, using, or destroying human embryos, and thus are minimally, if at all, controversial. Many less controversial sources of acquiring stem cells include using cells from the umbilical cord, breast milk, and bone marrow, which are not pluripotent.

Stem-cell therapy is the use of stem cells to treat or prevent a disease or condition. As of 2016, the only established therapy using stem cells is hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. This usually takes the form of a bone-marrow transplantation, but the cells can also be derived from umbilical cord blood. Research is underway to develop various sources for stem cells as well as to apply stem-cell treatments for neurodegenerative diseases and conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.

The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1986 and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that operates the Be The Match Registry of volunteer hematopoietic cell donors and umbilical cord blood units in the United States.

Crioestaminal - Saúde e Tecnologia, SA, was founded in 2003, becoming the first umbilical cord blood bank in the Iberian Peninsula. Since then, it has developed into the largest Portuguese and one of the five largest cryo-preservation banks in Europe with over 60,000 stored samples. Crioestaminal was the first company to be authorized by the Portuguese Ministry of Health and is the only family bank with an AABB accreditation in Portugal. In Europe, there are only five banks with an AABB accreditation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Precision Cellular Storage</span>

Precision Cellular Storage is a transport quality cord blood stem cell bank, with operations in Doha and the United Kingdom. The company was formerly named Virgin Health Bank until 2018, when it closed to new business and focused on the storage of existing customers' units.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Relicord</span>

Relicord is an initiative by the Reliance Industries in the field of biotechnological advancement. It is established as a part of the subsidiary of Reliance Industries, Reliance Life Sciences. ReliCord is the first to have a registered cord blood bank and repository in India as well as the entire region of South East Asia. In terms of Biotechnology India is currently amongst the top five countries in the Asia Pacific region. Reliance Life Sciences and ReliCord are an endeavour by the Reliance Group to tap into this emerging market that has great potential.

Allen C. Eaves is the founding Director of the Terry Fox Laboratory for Hematology/Oncology Research, which over a 25-year period (1981–2006) he grew into an internationally recognized centre for the study of leukemia and stem cell research. His own research on chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) has led the way to a new understanding of the disease. As Head of Hematology at the British Columbia Cancer Agency and the University of British Columbia for 18 years (1985–2003) he engineered the building of one of the first and largest bone marrow transplant programs in Canada. In recognition of his research accomplishments and leadership in moving basic science discoveries in stem cell biology into the clinic, he was elected President of the International Society of Cellular Therapy (1995–1997), Treasurer of the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (1995–2002) and President of the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (1999–2000). In 2003 he was awarded the prestigious R. M. Taylor Medal by the Canadian Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute of Canada. In 2016 he was awarded the Order of British Columbia as well as named Ernst and Young's Entrepreneur Of The Year™ Pacific.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mesenchymal stem cell</span> Multipotent, non-hematopoietic adult stem cells present in multiple tissues

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) also known as mesenchymal stromal cells or medicinal signaling cells are multipotent stromal cells that can differentiate into a variety of cell types, including osteoblasts, chondrocytes, myocytes and adipocytes.

The cord blood bank Cryo-Save AG shut their doors at the end of June 2019. By 17 September, they filed for liquidation. The brand name CryoSave and the client database now belong to CSG-BIO. The clients’ umbilical cords were moved in the 2nd quarter of 2019, to the Polish cord blood bank PBKM, the head of the FamiCord network. FamiCord does not own the cords, they are operating under a third party storage contract.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Schissler</span> American business executive

Matthew Schissler is an American business executive who has served in leadership roles in a number of privately and publicly held companies. He's most notable for having founded and managed Cord Blood America, Inc. (CBAI), a company specializing in the harvesting and storage of umbilical stem cells in the U.S. and worldwide. He currently manages a private investment fund focused on micro-cap public companies exhibiting significant growth potential. Matthew Schissler is notably a Founder and Member of GHS Investments, LLC

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cordlife</span>

Incorporated in May 2001, Cordlife Group Limited, is a consumer health company and one of the leading providers of cord blood and cord lining banking services in Asia. Cordlife has been listed on the mainboard of SGX since March 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cells4Life</span>

Cells4Life is a private stem cell bank based in the United Kingdom. It procures, processes and stores human umbilical cord blood and tissue samples that may be used for stem cell treatments. Cells4Life is the largest provider of umbilical cord blood banking services in the UK, with over 50% of the UK market. Based in Burgess Hill, the company also provides umbilical stem cell storage and collection services in Spain, Italy, United Arab Emirates, Bulgaria, Pakistan and Kenya.

Pregnancy-specific biological substances, which include the placenta, umbilical cord, amniotic fluid, and amniotic membrane are being studied for a number of health uses. For example, Placental-derived stem cells are being studied so they can serve as a potential treatment method for cell therapy. Hepatocyte-like cells (HLC) are generated from differentiated human amniotic epithelial cells (hAEC) that are abundant in the placenta. HLC may replace hepatocytes for hepatocyte transplantation to treat acute or chronic liver damage.

CellResearch Corporation is a biotechnology company with a primary focus on skin cell and cord lining stem cell research. CellResearch has one of the world's largest private skin-, scar-, and keloid-cell libraries which have been used for research by cell culture laboratories worldwide, including those at Harvard University, Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson. It owns 39 patents worldwide with intellectual property for the isolation of stem cells from the umbilical cord lining membrane of all mammals, which also includes the banking and cultivation of these cells, as well as the therapeutic applications of these cells.

LifeCell International is an Indian biotechnology company established in 2004. It runs India's largest stem cell bank and has also diversified into diagnostics and tissue therapeutics. In 2017 the company launched a community stem cell banking which allows sharing of preserved umbilical cord stem cells among its members. The community stem cell banking is claimed to be among the largest and only one of its kind in India. It was reported in 2017 that LifeCell had preserved stem cells from 3,00,000 individuals in India and was expected to add 60,000 individuals every year in the future

BioBridge Global is a San Antonio-based nonprofit holding company that operates the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center, QualTex Laboratories, GenCure, and The Blood and Tissue Center Foundation. BioBridge Global supplies products and services in blood resource management, cellular therapy, donated umbilical cord blood and human tissue, and testing of blood, plasma, and tissue. The organization was initially established as the South Texas Regional Blood Bank in 1973.

References

  1. ↑ Clive N. Svendsen; Allison D. Ebert (12 August 2008). Encyclopedia of Stem Cell Research. SAGE Publications. pp. 522–. ISBN   978-1-4522-6593-3.
  2. ↑ "FACT: Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy." Search Results. Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy, n.d. Web. 16 July 2015.
  3. ↑ "FACT: Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy." What FACT Accreditation Means To Patients. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Dec. 2014.
  4. ↑ "ISO 9001 Quality Management." ISO 9001 Quality Management. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Aug. 2015.
  5. ↑ L. Honnefelder; D. Sturma (1 October 2009). Jahrbuch Fur Wissenschaft Und Ethik. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 337–. ISBN   978-3-11-020884-9.
  6. ↑ Denogean, Anne T. "Cryo-Cell Wins $1.17M Suit vs. UA Cord Blood Bank." - Tucson Citizen Morgue, Part 2 (1993-2009). Tucson Citizen, 22 July 1998. Web. 16 July 2015.
  7. ↑ Jennifer Gunning; Søren Holm (2006). Ethics, Law, and Society. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. pp. 23–. ISBN   978-0-7546-4881-9.
  8. ↑ "Judge Reverses Last Remaining Aspect Of $7.1M Judgment Vs. Umbilical-Cord Blood Banks - Law360". www.law360.com.
  9. ↑ Roger Miller; Gaylord Jentz (1 January 2010). Business Law Today, Standard Edition. Cengage Learning. pp. 765–. ISBN   0-324-78652-2.
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