State of the Association
Report from the President

President Joanne Kurtzberg reported CBA accomplishments in the association’s first year to the Board of Directors at a meeting in mid-January. She summarized the accomplishments of CBA to date and spoke about the mobilization of committees that are addressing important issues, international harmonization of banking laws and regulations, important victories in the U.S. Congress, a proposed publishing partnership, and recruitment of members.

The Board of Directors met in person for the first time in February last year, so the accomplishments cover the association’s initial 10 months of operations.

As I review the first year of the Cord Blood Association, I can’t help but be impressed with the progress we’ve made in our inaugural year. Among our accomplishments at a high level: 

• We established the CBA as a 501(c)6 nonprofit association with a 501(c)3 subsidiary.
• We appointed a Board of Directors, elected officers, developed a Strategic Plan and established an incredibly dedicated Executive Committee that has met twice monthly over the year to implement that Plan and made significant progress on key issues.
• We created a website and recruited our association’s initial individual, bank and industry members.
• We hired Sidley Austin, a prestigious government relations firm, to represent us in legislative and regulatory initiatives critical to the advancement of cord blood and cord tissue banks, as well as the science of cord blood transplantation and the use of cord blood and cord tissues in the emerging fields of cellular therapies and regenerative medicine.
• We had a major presence in several scientific conferences.

Mobilized Committees

Five program committees were created, one for each of our association’s five priorities: 

• Advocacy – an effective voice for the industry internationally in public policy, legislation and regulation
• Market expansion – consumer access to banking services and cellular therapies
• Quality products and services – promotion of standards and accreditation
• Education – aware, informed and empowered parents, donors, health care providers and general public
• Research and development – advancement and rapid adoption of novel technologies and therapies

The committees are in various stages of operation. One of the most productive to date has been the Public Education Committee, under the leadership of Art Flatau. His committee immediately jumped into several tasks, not the least of which was developing an excellent, fair and balanced presentation of information parents need to decide about banking their baby’s cord blood. It is being installed on our website.

A Website Task Force, under the leadership of Karen Ballen, has had several meetings to create a vision for our organization’s online presence.

I’m delighted to report that Claudia Zylberberg is chairing our Market Expansion Committee, and I look forward to the accomplishments of the Scientific Affairs Committee led by Colleen Delaney.

The Government and Public Affairs Committee, led by Geoff Crouse, recently established a global task force with representatives from five continents that had its first, extremely inspiring call just before the New Year. I expect great things from this group over the coming months as it develops strategies to truly make the CBA’s mission critical to a global community.

Public Affairs

I’m very proud of the CBA’s accomplishments working with members of the U.S. Congress and the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) to reauthorize the Stem Cell Act of 2005 that provides funding for the C.W. Bill Young Program for another five years. This program subsidizes the network of public cord blood banks in the United States as well as the NMDP and the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research. This would not have been possible without the tireless dedication and work of Pattie DeLoatche and Dora Hughes, our lobbyists from Sidley Austin. The process introduced the CBA to members of Congress and gave visibility to our association during hearings in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

Meetings with the FDA provided a critical opportunity for the five licensed U.S. public banks to exchange ideas with the FDA about improving the process of licensure and optimizing its associated regulations to enable the success of public cord blood banks. We hope to have follow-up meetings with the FDA this year, with the now six licensed banks in the United States.

Over the coming year, CBA will begin to discuss a pathway for regulation of family banks to enable their clients’ products to be used in novel treatments using cord blood and birthing tissues in a variety of challenging diseases.

Partnerships

I believe that the CBA must have a key role in educational forums including medical journals and scientific meetings. This should include an affiliation with a high impact, peer-reviewed scientific journal. To this end, I’m delighted to report that we are talking with Stem Cells and Translational Medicine, published by Alpha Med Press, about a relationship for the publication of CBA members’ scientific articles in that journal. In addition, articles and opinion pieces from CBA members will be welcome in their e-newsletter and bulletins.

With respect to scientific meetings, the Executive Committee has worked with the AABB to partner in the 2016 International Cord Blood Symposium to be held in San Francisco this coming June. CBA will work with AABB to design the symposium program. That program is being reorganized to add workshops on cord blood collection, processing and testing, as well as to have an increased educational component for the younger individuals entering the field.

Based on the success of the CBA co-sponsored day of preconference cord blood workshops at the annual meeting of the International Society of Cellular Therapy in 2015, we have been invited back to coordinate another day of preconference workshops on cord blood and cord tissue in regenerative medicine at the 2016 ISCT Annual Meeting in May in Singapore.

Recruitment

Many of the strongest cord blood banks and corporate partners around the world have joined CBA. 

• Among our public bank members are Carolinas Cord Blood Bank (Durham, N.C., USA), Jose Carreras Cord Blood Bank (Düsseldorf, Germany), LifeCord Cord Blood Bank (Gainesville, Fla., USA), M.D. Anderson Cord Blood Bank (Houston, Texas, USA), and New York Blood Center (New York, N.Y., USA).
• Family bank members include Cells for Life (Markham, Ont., Canada), Cord Blood Registry (San Francisco, Calif., USA), CordVida (São Paulo, Brazil), Insception Lifebank (Toronto, Ont., Canada), LifeBankUSA/Celgene, (Cedar Knolls, N.J., USA), LifeCell International (Chennai, India), and PerkinElmer ViaCord (Waltham, Mass., USA).
• Hybrid banks that provide both public and family services include CariCord (Irvine, Calif., and Aurora, Colo., USA), Cord:USE (Orlando, Fla., USA), Cordon Vital (Mexico City, Mexico), New England Cord Blood Bank (Marlborough, Mass., USA), Sino Cell (Hsinchu City, Taiwan), StemCyte (Baldwin Park, Calif., USA), and Yunnan Province (Kunming, China). 

Other cord blood banks are in the process of applying.

• Companies that have joined as corporate partners include Akron Biotech (Boca Raton, Fla., USA), Auxocell (Cambridge, Mass., USA), BioLife Solutions (Bothell Wash., USA), Biosafe SA (Eysins, Switzerland), Fate Therapeutics (San Diego, Calif., USA), Gamida Cell (Jerusalem, Israel), Quick International Courier (Jamaica, N.Y., USA), and STEMCELL Technologies (Vancouver, B.C., Canada).

The CBA continues to welcome into membership all who meet the membership requirements and who wish to support the association’s mission. That especially includes individuals whose annual dues are $99 and can join online at the CBA website.

Governance

I would be remiss if I failed to comment on the way in which the components of the cord blood community have pulled together. The CBA Bylaws that were adopted last year require that there be equal representation of public banking and family banking on our Board of Directors. The unity demonstrated by our Board and evident in our committees has been beyond my most optimistic expectations. There’s a spirit that anything that benefits a part of our industry benefits all of us.

I have every expectation that we’ll see this common purpose continue to grow and flourish in the months and years ahead.

Words of Thanks

I offer my heartfelt gratitude to all of the officers, Board members and committee chairs and members who have supported the CBA in its first year. Without you, the CBA can't exist.

I also want to personally thank Geoff Crouse, Sue Armitage and Ken Giacin, the Executive Committee, who have devoted countless hours and are so committed to the success of our new association. And I give special thanks to Alan Leahigh, our managing director, who has provided invaluable support keeping us whole and on track.

Our Second Year

The CBA has a lot of exciting work to do over the coming year as we build on our early accomplishments. We will be involved in shaping new legislation in the United States around the FDA roadmap for approvals of cellular therapies This will be addressed in the 21st Century Cures and Innovations bills in the House and Senate, as well as in the Sen. Mark Kirk Bill and others that will impact family cord blood banks. The policies established in these bills will influence global regulations for important new therapies. We will consider a longer-term relationship with the International Cord Blood Symposium and will guide publications to Stem Cells and Translational Medicine. We will expand our role on the global front, which is critical to the long-term stability and success of the association.

Cord blood banking is a complex and challenging industry, and there are strong external forces bending and shaping our future. In the past, we have been mostly at the mercy of these headwinds and crosswinds. 
But CBA leaders have a different idea. We believe that we can set our own course with a realistic agenda and determination that it can be accomplished. 


So, thank you all for your dedication and commitment to the CBA. We are now launched and uniquely positioned to make an incredible difference in the world of cord blood. I look forward to our growth, impact and successes in the coming year.

Joanne Kurtzberg, MD
President
on behalf of the CBA Board of Directors

State of the Association