Cordlife shares sink over 40% after storage lapses damage thousands of clients’ cord blood units

SINGAPORE – Shares of Cordlife Group plunged more than 40 per cent on Dec 1 after the Ministry of Health (MOH) found that the company had

damaged cord blood units belonging to at least 2,150 customers

, making these unsuitable for stem cell transplant purposes.

The stock was down 40.7 per cent to 27 cents at midday, after closing at 45.5 cents the previous day. It opened trading on Dec 1 at an all-time low of 16 cents. It then recovered some ground to trade at 26 cents.

The last time the counter closed at this price was on March 30.

It eventually closed at 31 cents on Dec 1, nearly 32 per cent down from the previous day’s close.

Over 1.2 million shares changed hands, a marked increase in activity for the stock. Only 21,000 shares were traded on Nov 30.

MOH said on Nov 30 that the cord blood bank was found to have exposed cryopreserved cord blood units at suboptimal temperatures, damaging the units.

It has been ordered to stop collecting, testing, processing and/or storing any new cord blood and human tissue for up to six months. It is also not allowed to provide any new types of tests to patients.

Investigations are still ongoing, and MOH said it will consider further enforcement action.

Cordlife Group is the first cord blood bank in Singapore. It owns seven facilities across the region, and says it serves more than 600,000 parents in Asia.

In a media statement, the firm said this was the only time that such incidents had happened in the company’s 22 years of storing cord blood here and regionally.

The company will continue storing the damaged cord blood units for its clients until their child turns 21, in case these are still valuable with new developments in cell and gene therapy.

Cordlife Group has 14 days to make any representation to MOH.