TROUBLED cord-blood bank Cordlife Group requested a trading halt on Thursday (Mar 14) afternoon, pending the release of an announcement.

As at 3.10 pm, before the trading halt, the counter was trading down 6.3 per cent, or S$0.015, to S$0.225.

Last November, Cordlife was found to have stored some cord-blood tanks above acceptable temperature limits. The Ministry of Health (MOH) then issued a six-month suspension notice to the group, which took effect from Dec 15, 2023.

MOH subsequently found more process lapses in January amid its investigation:

• A new cord-blood processing method, implemented in August 2023, was not properly validated according to approved plan and protocol;

• The company’s temperature monitoring system failed to send notifications when temperatures in certain tanks exceeded acceptable levels between February and June 2022; and

• Six-monthly preventative maintenance was not carried out for two tanks in 2022.

MOH said on Jan 26 that the final results of tests on Cordlife’s impacted cord-blood units (CBU) will be ready by end-March.

Preliminary investigations showed that two of the six affected tanks, which stored about 2,300 CBUs, are unlikely to be affected by suboptimal temperatures. The results for the other tanks and dry shipper are not ready.

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Based on the group’s latest financials released at the end of February, its net profit for the second half ended December 2023 declined 50.3 per cent, to S$1.5 million from S$3 million in the year prior.

The group also said that its former chairman Joseph Wong was stepping down for personal family and health reasons. Then vice-chairman Dr Ho Choon Hou was appointed as acting chairman of the board until the appointment of a new chairman.