LifeSouth Community Blood Center received approval for a cord blood manufacturing license from the Food and Drug Administration.
This achievement means UF, along with UF Health Shands Hospital and LifeSouth will be able to help more people, said LifeSouth Media Specialist Gary Kirkland. LifeCord, a program of LifeSouth, is the first blood bank in Florida and fifth in the nation to earn the license.
Dr. John Wingard, director for UF Health Shands Hospital Bone Marrow Transplant Unit and deputy director for research at UF Health Cancer Center, said cord blood is important because sometimes people cannot find bone marrow matches for transplants. With cord blood, the matching process is more flexible, allowing more people to get what is necessary for their health.
Wingard said stem cells are taken from newborns’ already-detached umbilical cords and frozen in a blood bank. They’ll eventually be used to treat diseases like sickle cell anemia and leukemia.
“The unique thing about the cord blood is that the immunity of a newborn is very immature, and we don’t require any stringent matching with the recipient, making it very attractive,” Wingard said.
Kirkland said the road to the approval was a long one.
In 1996, the three groups created a cooperative agreement. From there, they set out to meet their goal of getting the license for cord blood manufacturing.
“When we originally started, we were a new drug protocol,” Kirkland said. “We were trying to figure out how this cord blood stuff worked, and what was the best way to go about it.”
Investigation into questions like these, along with 17 years of rigorous procedures, was what he said finally made achieving the goal possible.
“We got the license, and now we’re going to have even higher standards,” Kirkland said.
Not only will the transplants be given to more people in need, but they will also be held to FDA standards, making the procedure safer than before, he said.
