National Marrow Donor Program and America's Blood Centers Partner to Expand Access to Marrow and Cord Blood Transplants

The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) has partnered with America's Blood Centers (ABC), a Washington, DC-based association representing community, independent blood centers, to educate lawmakers about the importance of marrow and cord blood as life-saving treatment options and the need to fully fund the nation's cord blood network. Through this partnership, ABC and NMDP will work to:

• educate patients, physicians and families about federal and state policies related to cord blood collection, maintenance and availability
• collaborate on emerging regulatory issues, standards and accreditation
• develop new outreach programs to help meet the growing need for marrow and cord blood units from minority donors; and
• expand the nationwide network of centers that can collect peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) from donors matched to recipients in need of a transplant.

This partnership builds on current collaborations between the two organizations. Currently, 39 ABC member centers recruit about 30 percent of the adult donors listed on the NMDP Registry and more than half of ABC centers perform peripheral blood stem cell collections, many for transplant from unrelated donors coordinated by NMDP. Eight ABC centers also collect and store cord blood units, many of which are listed on the NMDP Registry.

About America's Blood Centers
Founded in 1962, America's Blood Centers is North America's largest network of community-based blood programs. Recognized by the U.S. Congress for its critical work in patient care and disaster preparedness and response, the federation of 77 blood centers together operates more than 600 collection sites in 45 U.S. states and Canada, providing half of the U.S., and all of the Canadian volunteer donor blood supply.

These blood centers serve an area with more than 180 million people and provide blood products and services to more than 4,200 hospitals and healthcare facilities across North America. ABC's U.S. members are licensed and regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Canadian members are regulated by Health Canada.

Learn more at: http://www.americasblood.org/download/releases/pr_080321_abc-nmdp.pdf