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New York Blood Center Receives $3 Million in Federal Funding to Help Build National Public Inventory Of 150,000 Cord Blood Units ; Allocation of Funds Will Help Make Life-Saving Stem Cell Therapy Available to More Patients
U.S. Newswire
7 November 2006
To: National and Metro Desk, Health Reporter
Contact: Rich Miller-Murphy of New York Blood Center, 212-570- 3101, 917-439-1727; Gladwyn Lopez of Rubenstein Communications Inc., 212-843-9231
NEW YORK, Nov. 7 /U.S. Newswire/ -- New York Blood Center (NYBC) announced today that it will receive $3 million of a $12 million federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) award as allocated by Congress, to help establish a national cord blood inventory. The funding will be used to help build a national public inventory of 150,000 high-quality cord blood units, thereby increasing transplant opportunities for patients suffering from various blood diseases, who before the use of cord blood, had relied strictly on bone marrow transplantation for treatment and survival.
NYBC's Board Chairman, Howard P. Milstein and President and CEO, Robert L. Jones, MD, both expressed gratitude for the much- needed funds and hope for its successful impact in the future treatment of blood diseases. "Since 1993, when New York Blood Center initiated the world's first public cord blood bank with donations from mothers, we have aspired to meet the needs of anyone who might need a stem cell transplant," said Dr. Jones. "To date, more than 37,000 mothers have donated cord blood to our program, making it the world's single largest public cord blood bank. But a national inventory will go even further in helping to meet the needs of many more individuals for whom there was no real alternative before."
NYBC will use the money to process and cryopreserve more cord blood units at its National Cord Blood Program at the Milstein National Cord Blood Center. The preserved units will then be accessible to patients nationwide through the Cord Blood Coordinating Center.
"Every year 20,000 American children and adults develop serious, life-threatening diseases that could be treated with a stem cell transplant," said Mr. Milstein. "Without stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood, their best hope has been a bone marrow transplant from a family member who has inherited exactly the same tissue type as the patient. But at least 60% of those in need go without a transplant. The creation of a National Cord Blood Inventory means that we can realistically conceive of a time when no person in need of a transplant will have to be turned away."
Scientists at NYBC's National Cord Blood Program-led by Pablo Rubinstein, MD and Cladd Stevens, MD, who together began the practice of public cord blood banking nearly 16 years ago and are considered pioneers in the field-estimate that the National Cord Blood Inventory will provide a suitable match for 80-90% of patients with blood diseases. According to Dr. Rubinstein, "With good ethnic distribution, an inventory of 150,000 high quality units may provide good grafts for 80-90% of all applying patients. And, unlike bone marrow, since cord blood will be banked and fully tested, it will also be ready for transplantation immediately, whenever and wherever needed."
For example, African-American patients have a much less chance of getting a transplant from an unrelated bone marrow donor compared to the rate for Caucasians. As a consequence, among U.S. patients seeking a transplant, 12% are African-American, yet African- Americans make up only 6% of those who succeed in getting a matched marrow donor transplant. With a national inventory of 150,000 cord blood units, nearly everyone in need will find a suitable cord blood match, regardless of their ethnic background.
In December of 2005, President George W. Bush signed the Stem Cell Therapeutic & Research Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-129) into law with the unanimous approval of the U.S. Congress. The provided funding will be used to implement the new law.
"I congratulate New York Blood Center on receiving one of these landmark contracts. The release of this federal funding is essential to increasing the nation's supply of cord blood, which already is helping to cure over 67 different diseases. This funding will enable New York Blood Center to further advance cord blood research and use this medical miracle to save even more lives," said U.S. Rep. Chris Smith who authored this important cord blood legislation and has been a strong advocate, sponsor and supporter to give patients more options.
To date, more than 2,200 patients around the world have benefited as a result of New York Blood Center's National Cord Blood Program, including Stephen Sprague, a former diabetic and heart disease patient. When diagnosed with rapidly advancing Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia in 1995, Mr. Sprague faced certain death. He had no suitable marrow-donor despite a search of several international donor registries. Today Mr. Sprague is both cancer-free and part of a growing population of cord blood beneficiaries who have overcome the odds with the help of a single cord blood donation. He has continued to be a tireless advocate in support of increasing cord blood inventories to allow for better matches and hence, improved transplant outcomes for patients.
"Nine years ago today, I was lucky to find a perfect cord blood match as my only remaining option for a stem cell transplant for leukemia," said Mr. Sprague. "With an expanded public cord blood inventory, patients will no longer have to rely on luck as I did. A well-designed national public cord blood banking strategy will provide more patients with better transplant opportunities and improved outcomes. It's almost that simple."
About New York Blood Center
NYBC, one of the nation's largest non-profit, community-based blood centers, has been providing blood, transfusion products and services to patients in New York and New Jersey hospitals since 1964. NYBC provides medical services and programs (Clinical, Transfusion and Hemophilia Services) through its medical professionals and transfusion medicine physicians. NYBC includes five regional recruitment, collection and distribution operations in Manhattan, Brooklyn/Staten Island, Long Island, New Jersey and the Hudson Valley.
New York Blood Center (NYBC) is home to the Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute and the National Cord Blood Program (NCBP) at the Milstein National Cord Blood Center, the world's first and largest public cord blood bank. NCBP has collection sites at hospitals throughout the New York metropolitan area (The Brooklyn Hospital Center; North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health Systems; New York- Presbyterian Hospital; Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Medical Center), in Virginia at Inova-Fairfax Hospital and in Ohio at University Hospitals of Cleveland.
For more information, visit <http://www.nybloodcenter.orgor>http://www.nybloodcenter.orgor http:/ / <http://www.nationalcordbloodprogram.org>www.nationalcordbloodprogram.org .
EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: Robert L. Jones, MD, President and CEO of New York Blood Center is available for interview by contacting Rich Miller-Murphy at 212-570-3101 or Gladwyn Lopez at 212-843- 9231.
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(c) 2006 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770
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