Information about the company
Hemafund / For parents / About "Hemafund" / Information about the company
The Family bank of the cord blood “Hemafund” is an international biotechnology company which provides services on treatment and longterm storage of stem cells of cord blood in Ukraine since 2005.
The family bank of the cord blood “Hemafund” performs its activity exclusively within the legal space of Ukraine in accordance with the license of the Ministry of Health of UkraineАВ №333442 dated11.05.07.
City of Moscow (Russia)
The company “Hemafund” possesses clinic, research, and processing laboratories in Ukraine (Kyiv), Russia (Moscow), and Germany (Saarbrücken). The company “Hemafund” permanently improves processes of cord blood treatment and cryo-storage. Furthermore, the company has access to the newest developments in cell medicine and gene therapeutic drugs.
Cityof Saarbrücken(Germany)
Treatment and storage technique
The Family bank of cord blood “Hemafund” is the only bank of stem cells in Ukraine which works in accordance with the state technique approved by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and modified with acknowledgement of international experience and advances of Blokhin Russian research oncology center (Moscow).
Quality of the technique was confirmed by an independent assessment by experts from European banks of cord blood and hundreds of successful transplantations performed:
- in Russia (transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells of cord blood and bone marrow);
- in Ukraine (transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells of cord blood).
Cooperation with domestic medicine centers
The Family bank of cord blood “Hemafund” takes maximum efforts to find as many as possible medicine institutions which can, if necessary, carry out treatment of our customers using their deposits of stem cells stored in “Hemafund”.
AgreementsarealreadyachievedwiththeInternationalCenterofBiotechnologies“Biostem” atGusakResearchInstituteofEmergencyandRehabilitationSurgery(Donetsk). According to them, customers of the Family bank of cord blood “Hemafund” can get the most up-to-date treatment with use of cell technologies in that highly specialized medicine center.
Besides that, “Hemafund” is the only bank in Ukraine which was granted with a credit to perform its contribution in implementation of a pioneering method of surgery treatment of heart defects which was developed by specialists of the Theoretical and Practical Medicine Center of Infant Cardiology and Cardiosurgery of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. Within the framework of this program, the Family bank of cord blood “Hemafund” covers all expenses and costs of works on treatment of cord blood which is used in operations on hearts of newborn infants in the first hours and days of their lives.
Besides that, components of autologous cord blood treated in “Hemafund” are successfully used by Rhomodanov Research Institute of Neurosurgery upon operations in newborn infants with congenital anomaly of central nervous system development, notably spina bifida.
Independent assessment by foreign experts
High quality of treatment and storage of cord blood samples by Family bank of cord blood “Hemafund” is confirmed by Ukrainian and foreign independent experts.
One of leading European banks of cord blood Cord Blood Center Group confirmed a fact of receipt of a cord blood sample which was treated and stored earlier in “Hemafund”. Decision of the bank Cord Blood Center Group on reception of the sample for storage evidenced one more time that treatment quality and storage of cord blood in the Family bank of cord blood “Hemafund” meets not only the domestic requirements but also the quality standards of banks of the European Union. Possibility of this collaboration was confirmed after a thorough study of the technique of treatment and storage of samples in “Hemafund”.
Besides Cord Blood Center Group, a sample which was previously stored with “Hemafund” was accepted by another EU bank, Polski Bank Komorek Macierzystych (PBKM), which provides service on cryo-storage of stem cells in Poland, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania. Polski Bank Komorek Macierzystych is accredited in accordance to the standard AABB. Only two banks have such accreditation in Europe.
The fact that two leading EU banks of cord blood working in Italy, Spain, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, and Romania accepted samples from “Hemafund” for storage evidences that treatment and storage quality of cord blood with “Hemafund” meet the quality standards of the European banks.
Guarantee
"Hemafund" is the only bank of cord blood in Ukraine which guarantees in a contractual way to its clients organization of passing samples for storage to another cord blood bank of the respective level in circumstances which do not permit further storage in the cryo-depository of “Hemafund”.
Besides that the bank responsibility before its clients is ensured today only at the Family bank of cord blood “Hemafund”.
Experience of successful clinical use of stored samples
Cord blood treated and stored in “Hemafund” was successfully used at a state medicine center upon treatment of a hypoxic damage of brain of a two-year-old child. Doctors note regular improvements in the patient during more than one year after the use.
Cord blood components treated by specialists of the Family bank of cord blood “Hemafund” were used in about 140 successful cardiosurgery operations in newborn infants with prenatal diagnosis of heart defect.
Socialinitiative
A program of free-of-charge stocking of cord blood for newborn infants with heart defects was created and works at the Family bank of cord blood “Hemafund”. Parts of the program are used upon operations in children in Research and Production Center of children’s cardiology and cardio-surgery of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.
A similar charity program works for newborn children with congenital anomaly of development of the central nervous system being operated at Rhomodanov Research Institute of Neurosurgery.
Besides that special price packages are provided for families in which stem cells application is planned in close future for treatment of serious diseases.
International Research Activity
The Family bank of cord blood “Hemafund” pays much attention from the time of its foundation to international cooperation and scientific and technological integration with leading foreign banks of cord blood.
In 2010, “Hemafund” combined its scientific and technological potential with the leading international biotechnological company “Institute of human stem cells” (the central office is in Moscow), which provides “Hemafund” with the following possibilities:
• to optimize the technique of extraction and cryoconservation of hemopoietic stem cells from cord blood using experience of Blokhin Russian Research Oncology Center;
• to introduce procedures for extraction of fibroblast-like cells from tissue of the umbilical cord;
• to make techniques of reproduction of cord blood stem cells and their directed differentiation into nervous, muscle, heart muscle and other tissues accessible for its clients;
• to provide Ukrainians with immediate access to newest achievements in gene therapeutic drugs including those for medication of critical ishaemia of extremities.
Employees of the Family bank of cord blood “Hemafund” regularly participate in international specialized scientific and practical conferences and round tables. During just one year of 2010, “Hemafund” presented reports at 7 international conferences and symposia in Austria, France, Spain, Russia, and Ukraine. In September of this year, “Hemafund” was a co-organizer of the 3d International Symposium “Actual problems of cell technologies” in Moscow.