Private conservation: here’s who to trust
To deal with the choice of private conservation with serenity, you need to select the right structure. But what are the criteria to be taken into consideration to ensure real hope for the future? Just keep in mind three simple rules: quality, safety and reliability. And this is the recipe of Swiss Stem Cells Biotech (SSCB), which, thanks to more than 13 years of experience, is the most prestigious bio-bank in Switzerland and in Europe with more than 20,000 samples stored.
Safety and quality in SSCB
SSCB’s safety and quality are guaranteed both at national and international level.
Since its beginning of its activity, SSCB has been inspected four times by Swissmedic, the Swiss Federal Control Agency on drugs and therapeutic agents, basically the Swiss counterpart of the Italian AIFA (Italian Agency for Drugs).
In addition to Swissmedic’s authorization, SSCB has also received the prestigious accreditation from FACT-Netcord, a non-profit association based in Omaha, USA, and the world’s reference for public and private cordon banks since 1997.
Since the end of 2012, after a long and complex certification process, FACT-Netcord officially recognizes us as an accredited bank. This accreditation is being renewed over the years and every three years an new inspection takes place to guarantee our customers a continue improvement of our procedures and safety of the samples stored. In the world, only 54 cordon banks are accredited (April 2018 update) as the best public donation banks and the best private banks for autologous conservation. SSCB Swiss Stem Cells Biotech is one of these.
This quality certificate is equivalent to the guarantee for parents who have chosen to keep the stem cells sample in SSCB. In fact, in the case of need for a therapy, this sample would be considered safe and usable as those from the best public donation banks.
Finally, it is good to remember that SSCB is a real biobank, and not an intermediary. This means that it does not rely on third-party laboratories for the conservation, but performs all process and storage activities inside the facilities located in Switzerland.
When the keyword is reliability
At the end of the cryopreservation process, SSCB issues a certificate that details the data of the preserved sample: from cell viability to the number of cells, to the results of the serological and microbiological tests, and the indication of the baby’s blood group. These are data that, in the case of transplantation, are crucial to decide whether to use the sample or not. As for the cost, in SSCB there are no surprises. The price indicated at the time of subscription is all inclusive and is valid throughout the conservation time.
Expertise and professionalism
This is how SSCB takes care of its customers, by offering free counseling services on new clinical trials involving stem cells. Entering these groups on which new therapies are being “tested” is not so easy. You have to carefully evaluate the cases and understand, with the group of researchers who are carrying out the study, if it is possible to access them. In one word, expertise is needed, such as that of Swiss Stem Cells Biotech.
