Public vs private: What’s the difference?
Singapore Cord Blood Bank is the only public bank in the country. Besides Cordlife, Singapore has two other private cord blood banks: Cryoviva and Stemcord.
Singapore Cord Blood Bank was officially opened in September 2005.
According to Singapore’s National Library Board, the public cord blood bank was opened in response to demand from paediatricians and haematologists to increase the number of cord blood units available for unrelated stem cell transplant patients.
Ten hospitals in Singapore offer public cord blood donation and direct family cord blood banking. They are KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, National University Hospital, Singapore General Hospital, Gleneagles, Mount Alvernia, Mount Elizabeth (Orchard and Novena), Parkway East, Raffles and Thomson Medical.
If cord blood is stored in a public bank, it is for everyone – the donor does not have exclusive rights to their blood stem cells. In a private bank, it is kept for the child’s personal use.
Cord blood donations to a public bank are voluntary, confidential and at no cost to the donor.
But keeping cord blood at a private bank comes at a cost.
Cordlife charges an annual fee of S$250 when a child is aged between 1 and 20. When the child reaches 21, they will have direct ownership of their cord blood and have to decide whether or not to continue storing it.
Cordlife customers are also charged an upfront initial payment, although the amount is not made known on Cordlife’s website.
Stemcord says on its website that customers can bank their child’s cord blood for “as little as S$0.80 per day”. It offers various pricing plans, although potential customers will have to enquire about prices.
Cryoviva’s price plan is not published on its website.
All three private cord blood banks in Singapore allow parents to make payments using the Child Development Account – a savings scheme which can be used for a child’s healthcare expenses.
The Singapore Cord Blood Bank also offers private cord blood banking. With this service, parents can initially store the cord blood units for their family and later donate them to the public inventory, if it meets the necessary public donation criteria.
The BBC reported in August that the global cord blood banking market was valued at US$1.3 billion in 2020, and is expected to grow to US$4.5 billion in the next decade.