Cordlife granted extension to appeal license suspension
The company stopped collection of cord blood units before suspension period
Cordlife Group Limited was granted until 27 October 2025 to submit its written explanation to the Ministry of Health regarding the one-year suspension of its cord blood banking and human tissue license.
MOH stated in a notice in September that it intends to suspend Cordlife’s cord blood banking service and human tissue banking licence for a period of one year.
This follows an inspection in July, where MOH reportedly found areas of non-compliance with regulations on general healthcare and cord blood banking services. The non-compliances raised related primarily to processes for quality management, continuity of operations, supplier management, performance monitoring, risk assessment, incidents reporting, incidents handling, corrective actions and documentation/data management.
Should the suspension proceed, Cordlife will be prohibited from carrying out any cord blood banking activities for new cord blood units (CBU) for a one-year period.
It will also be required to maintain the safety and quality of existing stored CBUs and facilitate retrievals for transplant or to another cord blood bank.
Since 30 September 2025, one day after the MOH gave its suspension notice, the company has stopped the collection, testing, processing and storing of new cord blood units (CBU), the company said in a bourse filing.
It said that it is “continuing to seek advice on the appropriate response to the notice and will provide an update in due course.” Cordlife will only be allowed to release stored CBUs for clinical use after a suitably qualified haematologist has assessed that they are fit for the intended clinical use.
The company advised its shareholders and potential investors to exercise caution when dealing in the shares of the company, the blood bank said in the same bourse filing.