BELEAGUERED cord-blood bank Cordlife is working with experts to introduce “stringent measures” to enhance its operational standards, including implementing a more advanced lab monitoring system and fortifying its fail-safe measures.
In a letter to shareholders on Friday (Mar 22), the group’s newly appointed chief executive officer Yiu Pang Fai said his immediate goal is to focus on the rectification plan to have its suspension lifted. “This would allow us to resume collecting new cord blood and human tissue for our Singapore business,” he noted.
Cordlife is serving a six-month suspension from collecting, testing, processing and/or storing new cord blood and human tissue.
The suspension was issued by the Ministry of Health (MOH) in November last year, after an audit found that the private cord-blood bank had exposed cryopreserved cord-blood units in seven tanks at suboptimal temperatures of above minus 150 degrees Celsius.
The initiatives which Cordlife plans to introduce include enlisting the expertise of the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy to provide guidance and reinforce its procedures and organisational structure.
It also plans to implement a more advanced lab monitoring system to enhance real-time monitoring of its Singapore facility both remotely and on-site, and to fortify its fail-safe measures to ensure uninterrupted operations even under adverse conditions.
The group wants to provide extensive training to its staff to “explain the rationale and importance of every standard operating procedure and equipment operating procedure while also cultivating a stronger sense of accountability and responsibility”.
It will also increase the number of experienced technical personnel to improve laboratory expertise and processing capabilities.
Yiu’s letter comes after former group CEO Tan Poh Lan and four other Cordlife directors were arrested by the Commerical Affairs Department on alleged breaches-of-disclosure obligations over the storage tank lapses. They have since been released on bail.
Tan had tendered her resignation as the company’s group chief executive and executive director in October 2023 to “pursue personal interests”.
Yiu, the former director of TransGlobal Real Estate Group, was appointed in February this year to take over as group chief executive. TransGlobal holds a 27.9 per cent stake in Cordlife.
In his letter, Yiu said he was “deeply disappointed” by the lapses as a Cordlife client himself. “I feel a huge responsibility to understand the situation more deeply and make amends while also meeting our existing client commitments.”
He reassured shareholders that his professional background in handling large-scale infrastructure projects across the region makes him “acutely aware of the importance of robust standard operating procedures and equipment operating procedures”.
“I have personally visited some of the company’s offices and laboratories to better understand the business operations and pertinent issues at hand,” he said.
He added that Cordlife is working in full compliance with MOH and other related authorities to understand the problems and take the appropriate remedial steps.
“I deeply understand the importance of our services and urgency of resolving the situation in Singapore as soon as possible,” said Yiu. “As we address this, we will ensure that all corrective actions taken are sustainable, and that these good practices continue beyond the rectification exercise.”
He stressed that the suspension and the ongoing investigations are isolated to the group’s operations in Singapore and have no impact on its subsidiaries outside the country.
Shares of Cordlife closed at S$0.199 on Friday, down S$0.026 or 11.6 per cent.
