President Signs Cord Blood Stem Cell Legislation
December 21, 2005
In a ceremony yesterday in the Roosevelt Room of The White House, President Bush signed into law the “Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005.” The law “creates a new Federal program to collect and store cord blood, and expands the current bone marrow registry program to also include cord blood.”
Passage of the bill has been somewhat under-reported, but it is important legislation. An AP story succinctly reports the facts:
The bill Bush signed will provide $79 million in federal funding to increase the number of cord blood units available for matches. The objective is 150,000 units, which would mean 90 percent of patients needing them would have a match.
A number of conditions are currently being treated with stem cells from cord blood (Krabbe’s disease, heart attack, leukemia, Tay-Sachs, sickle cell anemia) and research is being conducted to investigate the effectiveness of cord blood stem cells for many other conditions (Parkinson’s, stroke, Alzheimer’s, muscular dystrophy, diabetes, spinal cord injury, ALS,). For more on cord blood stem cells see Don’t Throw away the Future