THE Ministry of Health will closely monitor Cordlife Group’s governance and ensure its practices are consistent and compliant with regulatory requirements, the ministry said on Wednesday (Jan 15).
This is in response to queries on Tuesday’s statement that Cordlife’s cord-blood banking service and human-tissue banking service licences have been renewed for a year, with immediate effect.
Following the announcement, the company’s shares surged 10.3 per cent or S$0.015 to S$0.16, as at 3.05 pm on Wednesday.
MOH said its audits showed that Cordlife has satisfactorily addressed critical shortcomings in various areas.
This includes temperature monitoring practices, cord-blood inventory management, and incident response, said the health ministry.
Cordlife’s cord-blood banking service and human-tissue banking service licences were therefore renewed by the director-general of health.
BT in your inbox
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
However, in view of the recent organisational changes to Cordlife’s key office holders, the licence renewal will be for a “limited period” of one year, said MOH.
Cordlife on Tuesday said: “The company is committed to meeting all applicable regulatory requirements and compliance measures, before considering the full resumption of operations in Singapore.”
The company added that at the current stage, it is unable to assess the impact on its fiscal performance for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2025.
Prior to this licence renewal, MOH allowed the company to resume its cord-blood banking service operations “in a controlled manner”, restricting its operations to not more than 30 units per month of new cord blood from infant donors, from Sep 15, 2024, to Jan 13, 2025.
