ARCADIA, Calif., May 1 /PRNewswire/ -- StemCyte, Inc., a privately held stem cell therapy and cord blood bank, has received accreditation from the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT) for its International Cord Blood Center in Arcadia, California. This accreditation means that the StemCyte International Cord Blood Center is now among a handful of cord blood banks to receive accreditation from the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB), the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), the College of American Pathologists (CAP), and FACT for allogeneic donations. The StemCyte International Cord Blood Center is now the first and the only cord blood bank in the world accredited by FACT for autologous donations.
"Under the direction of Dr. Lawrence Petz, StemCyte, Inc. in Arcadia, California has met the criteria set forth by the NETCORD-FACT International Standards for Cord Blood Collection, Processing, Testing, Banking, Selection and Release," FACT announced on its website. Lawrence D. Petz, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, StemCyte International Cord Blood Center, and Emeritus Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, UCLA Medical Center, states, "This accreditation shows the high level of quality of our cord blood units that transplant physicians have come to depend on. Our more than 400 proprietary standard operating procedures for each cord blood unit yield consistently excellent one-year patient survival rates." StemCyte, Inc. has now shipped 300 units to transplant centers around the world to treat patients with diseases such as leukemia, thalassemia and sickle cell disease.
"We are very pleased to receive accreditation from FACT," says StemCyte's CEO Ken Giacin. "The rigorous review by a team of top experts shows our laboratory facility to be truly world-class. We strive to be the largest, most genetically diverse, and highest quality cord blood bank in the world."
To find out more visit StemCyte online at www.stemcyte.com.
About StemCyte, Inc.
StemCyte, Inc., headquartered in Arcadia, California, intends to create the largest donor umbilical cord blood stem cell bank in the world. StemCyte and its subsidiaries are dedicated to providing high quality, cost-effective, stem cell transplantation and therapy to all patients in need. StemCyte, Inc.'s management team consists of medical, scientific, clinical laboratory, tissue typing, blood banking and stem cell professionals and experts, most of whom have been recruited from world-renowned medical institutions such as Harvard Medical School, UCLA, American Red Cross, City of Hope, and others. Because of its ability to deliver high quality and high quantity viable cord blood stem cells, StemCyte is a key choice for transplant centers around the world. StemCyte has provided cord blood units to hospitals and transplant centers in the United States as well as in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Great Britain, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, Spain and Taiwan. StemCyte donor banks have now supplied cord blood units for more than 300 life-saving transplants in just a few short years.
About FACT
Founded in 1996, FACT establishes standards for high quality medical and laboratory practice. FACT is a non-profit organization developed by the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) and the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT) for the purposes of voluntary inspection and accreditation in the field of hematopoietic cell therapy. The major objective of FACT is to promote high quality patient care and quality laboratory performance in the belief that a valid accreditation must assess both clinical and laboratory aspects.
CONTACT: David Carmel StemCyte, Inc. 917-414-4121
StemCyte, Inc.CONTACT: David Carmel of StemCyte, Inc., +1-917-414-4121
Web site: http://www.stemcyte.com/
