SINGAPORE: Embattled Cordlife Group said on Aug 15 that the international Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies has withdrawn the company’s AABB accreditation for cord blood activities - collection, processing, storage and distribution.

This was after Cordlife provided an update to AABB at the organisation’s request that Singapore’s Health Ministry (MoH) had issued a notice to the cord blood bank barring it from collecting, testing and storing new cord blood for three months from June.

AABB sets standards for blood banking, transfusion medicine, blood management and cellular therapies.

AABB has notified Cordlife that the association can accredit it only after MoH permits the company to resume its business, after it has fully resolved all quality issues, and has several months of records available for on-site inspection.

AABB’s notice to Cordlife stated that the current continued closure of the company’s cord blood banking services “makes it impossible for AABB to identify non-conforming products, processes and events, as well as successful implementation of corrective measures supporting the AABB accreditation standards”.

AABB said Cordlife can seek accreditation once MoH reinstates the group’s operations, and it will undergo the same accreditation process with a self-assessment, followed by an on-site evaluation of the efficacy of the company’s quality-management system.

On receipt of approval from MoH to resume operations, Cordlife will evaluate the feasibility of seeking AABB accreditation at a suitable time, said the group.

Seven of Cordlife’s 22 storage tanks were exposed to temperatures above acceptable limits at different periods since November 2020. The lapses were uncovered by MoH, which suspended the cord blood bank from collecting or processing new cord blood for six months from November 2023.

The group was subsequently handed an additional three-month suspension, which took effect on June 15.

In a separate filing to the Singapore Exchange, the company posted a net loss of S$12.4mil or about US$9.4mil for the first half of the year ended June 30, compared with a net profit of US$2.2mil in the same period a year ago.

This came as revenue fell 67.5 % to S$9.2mil from S$28.3mil in the previous corresponding period, largely due to the suspension of the group’s Singapore activities.

The decline includes around S$9.7mil in costs that arose due to the waiver of subsequent fees for active clients who stored their cord blood units in tanks at high risk of being affected by storage lapses, as well as the recognition of contract liabilities related to future storage obligations of affected clients.

 - ANN