Time Magazine points out that although private cord-blood banks do exist they are charging anywhere from "$2,000 for initial processing and about $125 per year after that "but they only store cord blood that can be used by the donor's family." Public banks make their contents available to anyone who is a close-enough match.
"There are only 19 public banks in the U.S., however, and until recently the only way women could donate to them was to give birth in one of the 175 or so affiliated hospitals that have a system in place to collect and transfer cord blood," Time Magazine states.
This is where the new kits, developed by Cryopak, come in. "Three hospitals - two in Texas, one in North Carolina - are piloting a federal program that allows women to mail in cord blood from anywhere in the continental U.S. for inclusion in Be the Match, the national cord-blood registry," Time Magazine explains.
"This kit was designed so that no pre-conditioning was required for the system to function properly," Anthony Alleva, Technical Services Manager at Cryopak, said. "The kits can be stored inside the expectant mother's home and carried to the hospital on their delivery date."
The doctor's will then load the system with the required blood collection bag and tubes to be sent back to Carolinas Cord Blood Bank for storage.
Each kit was designed with an outer returnable plastic shell so that the systems could be reused numerous times and provides ample protection during transportation.
"This kit is very unique in that it uses Cryopak's new PIR panels and Exo-Gel™ Panel to maintain the required temperature ranges," Alleva, said.
Cryopak also designed a water filled pouch using their Flexible Ice Blanket™ to completely enclose the collected blood material and effectively prevent any leaks and provide more protection to the collected blood samples.
