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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | February 21, 2013 12:07 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Mike Folmer |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Cord Blood Bank Act |
| In the near future, I will be re-introducing legislation to create a cord blood bank in Pennsylvania. The primary goal of making cord blood available to transplant centers is to serve PA residents requiring transplants. Scientists have determined that placental and umbilical cord blood hold tremendous promise in their ability to provide a rich supply of stem cells for new treatments for many diseases. The Department of Health (DOH) would distribute a grant to a qualified cord blood bank which would establish arrangements with qualified hospital facilities. If there are no entities that could satisfy the definition of a qualified cord blood bank, the DOH may disburse a grant to enable an entity to become qualified. The bill is designed to complement the federal Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005. A Pennsylvania Public Cord Blood Bank would be required to meet the requirements of a qualified cord blood bank under federal law and would have to participate with the national program. As such, the Pennsylvania program would be able to apply for additional federal future funding if any of the federal funding allocated for cord blood band ($15 million a year) would be available. This is the re-introduction of SB 154. Prior co-sponsors include: FOLMER, KITCHEN, ROBBINS, GORDNER, ORIE, VOGEL, ERICKSON, SCARNATI, M. WHITE, ALLOWAY, RAFFERTY, D. WHITE, LEACH, BOSCOLA, EARLL, PICCOLA, TARTAGLIONE and WOZNIAK |
Introduced as SB805