CBR Systems Lawsuit Alleges Private Umbilical Cord Blood Bank Services Are ‘Largely Worthless’

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A new proposed class action lawsuit accuses CBR Systems of charging families thousands for umbilical cord blood banking services that are “largely worthless” as far as their advertised purpose while diverting much-needed cord blood units away from public banks. 

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The 26-page CBR Systems lawsuit says that although the company aggressively markets its services as a potentially life-saving treatment option for children, CBR does not relay to expectant parents that the odds a child could ever use their own cord blood or tissue to treat a medical condition are “virtually zero,” or that the “vast majority” of cord blood treatments have not been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). 

Though CBR Systems claims in particular that stem cells within a newborn’s umbilical cord blood and tissue can be used later to treat 80 serious conditions the child or a sibling might develop, the FDA has approved the use of a child’s own cord blood for the treatment of only seven medical conditions, including certain kinds of leukemia and lymphoma, the complaint relays. The case notes that a child’s own cord blood “most often contains the same defects that caused the medical condition for which treatment is sought” and that, in most cases, a child would require stem cell donation from a public source. Moreover, despite CBR’s representations, the use of a child’s cord blood for treatment of a sibling’s medical condition is “still incredibly rare,” the case adds. 

According to the complaint, CBR has admitted that, of the more than one million cord blood units it has stored, only around 700 families have ever used their child’s cord blood for any type of treatment.  

The suit also alleges CBR does not reasonably disclose that the “vast majority” of cord-blood transplants stem from public banks or that there may not be enough stem cells in a newborn’s cord blood to be viable in a future medical treatment. 

Despite the foregoing, CBR sells parents storage of stem cells and tissue for up to 18 years or longer while knowing that the cells collected at a child’s birth will “be inadequate for any form of treatment at all.”  

“Unsurprisingly, CBR does not reasonably disclose this information to expectant parents,” the lawsuit says. 

Additionally, CBR downplays the chances that a child may find a stem cell match through public cord blood banks or other sources, the filing alleges, accusing the defendant of diverting hundreds of thousands of cord blood units away from public banks to its own facilities, “where misinformed parents pay a premium to store cord blood that will almost certainly sit dormant until it is discarded.” 

The case, citing an article from the peer-reviewed journal Bone Marrow Transplantation, states that around the world there are “six times as many cord-blood units stored in private cord-blood banks than in public banks.” 

“This does not appear to bother CBR, which has lined its pockets by diverting over 1 million units of cord blood away from public banks,” the suit scathes. 

According to the lawsuit, recent statistics suggest that global cord-blood reserves could have increased by 125 percent had the units given to CBR instead been donated to public banks. 

The case looks to cover all consumers in the United States who, on or after July 6, 2020, contracted with CBR systems for private cord blood banking and have not used their child’s banked cord blood or tissue for any medical purpose. 

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