Skip to main content

Government officials will never ask you to transfer money or disclose bank log-in details over a phone call.

Call the 24/7 ScamShield Helpline at 1799 if you are unsure if something is a scam.

Ministry of Health
  1. Home
  2. Newsroom
  3. Singapore Cord Blood Bank
Press Releases

Singapore Cord Blood Bank

17 September 2007

This article has been migrated from an earlier version of the site and may display formatting inconsistencies.

17 Sep 2007

Question No:  77  

Question

Name of the Person: Dr Fatimah Lateef, MP for Marine Parade

To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide an update on the progress of the Singapore Cord Blood Bank (SCBB), in particular, (a) over the last two years, what is the number of donors and the number of transplants carried out; (b) whether many cases/patients require a waiver or reduction of the retrieval fees; and (c) how does its performance compare with that of the two privately-run blood banks.

Reply

Reply From MOH

  1. The Singapore Cord Blood Bank (SCBB) was launched in September 2005 as a public cord blood bank. It has collected about 2,000 cord blood units (CBUs) with high number of cells ready for use.  The target is to add about 2,000 units to the bank each year for a significant inventory of at least 10,000 useable CBUs.

  2. There have been two successful cord blood transplantations using the CBUs from SCBB. A CBU has just been issued to a local transplant centre for transplantation.

  3. For the two cord blood transplantations, the retrieval fees were around $25,000 each. This is about half the rate in the US as the SCBB is partly subsidized. The patients were also able to access various charity funds.

  4. Unlike the SCBB, the private cord blood banks collect and store cells for the donors’ personal use in the future.  Given the different objectives, their performances are not comparable.  

Back to top