Dessels, CarlaAlessandrini, MarcoPepper, Michael Sean2018-12-042018-12-042018-09Dessels, C., Alessandrini, M. & Pepper, M.S. 2018, 'Factors influencing the umbilical cord blood stem cell industry : an evolving treatment landscape', Stem Cells Translational Medicine, vol. 7, no. 9, pp. 643-650.2157-6564 (print)2157-6580 (online)10.1002/sctm.17-0244http://hdl.handle.net/2263/67443Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is common practice today for life threatening malignant and non-malignant diseases of the blood and immune systems. Umbilical cord blood (UCB) is rich in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and is an attractive alternative to harvesting HSCs from bone marrow or when mobilized into peripheral blood. One of the most appealing attributes of UCB is that it can be banked for future use and hence provides an off-the-shelf solution for patients in urgent need of a transplantation. This has led to the establishment of publicly funded and private UCB banks, as seen by the rapid growth of the UCB industry in the early part of this century. However, from about 2010, the release of UCB units for treatment purposes plateaued and started to decrease year-on-year from 2013 to 2016. Our interest has been to investigate the factors contributing to these changes. Key drivers influencing the UCB industry include the emergence of haploidentical HSCT and the increasing use of UCB units for regenerative medicine purposes. Further influencing this dynamic is the high cost associated with UCB transplantation, the economic impact of sustaining public bank operations and an active private UCB banking sector. We foresee that these factors will continue in a tug-of-war fashion to shape and finally determine the fate of the UCB industry.en© 2018 Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License.UCB industryTreatmentHematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT)Umbilical cord blood (UCB)Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs)Article