[HN Gopher] Launch HN: Anja Health (YC W22) - Freezing stem cell...
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Launch HN: Anja Health (YC W22) - Freezing stem cells at birth for
future health
Hi HN, My name is Kathryn Cross, and I'm the founder of Anja Health
(https://anjahealth.com/). We help pregnant parents freeze their
baby's umbilical cord and placenta at birth, in order to save stem
cells in case they're needed in the future. "Anja" refers to my
brother Andrew. When I was 3 and Andrew was 1, he was in a near-
drowning accident that gave him cerebral palsy. My parents
immediately began searching for a way to help his condition, and
the most promising thing they could find was umbilical cord blood
stem cells, which have been shown to improve motor and social
skills in children with cerebral palsy. However, we couldn't find a
match because matching happens via ethnicity (at a high level), and
my brother and I are mixed race. So, lack of access to cord blood
stem cells is a pain point that my family knows deeply, and I felt
it the most this past year when my brother passed away. I knew I
had to solve this issue for others. I want everyone to have access
to their own umbilical cord blood stem cells, especially since more
powerful uses will likely be found for these cells in the future.
Also, since banked cells can be used by relatives (the closer the
better), this process is really for families, not just individuals.
Donated cord blood can save a life, but chances of survival have
proven to be much higher with stem cells that you are genetically
matched to. Cord blood stem cells have been used for heart
disease, liver disease, cancer, IBS, type 1 diabetes, neurological
disease, and more. Selma Blair, for instance, has even used them to
help her multiple sclerosis. They've also been used to help
children with neuroblastomas, lymphomas, and leukemia specifically.
We are one of the few cord blood banks with an advanced lab--
advanced enough to offer placenta banking and manual stem cell
processing, which maximizes stem cell count and collection at
birth. How it works: we ship our stem cell collection kit to you.
You keep it in your bag to bring to the birth, and a nurse or
midwife uses the kit (a cord blood bag with a needle and 2
containers for the placenta and cord) to collect. This takes 5-10
minutes. (Delayed cord clamping and cord blood banking are
compatible--you can delay cord clamping and bank the rest.) You
call us a few hours after birth, and a courier will meet you
anywhere in the US within 12 hours to bring the kit to our lab in
New Jersey, where it's cryopreserved at around -190 degrees C in
vapor nitrogen. You will then have stem cells for injury, disease,
and other treatment purposes that you can always access upon
request. We are more user friendly and more technically inclined
than other solutions. Lower costs and tech operations allow us to
be the most affordable option. For as low as $35/month, parents can
store their baby's once-in-a-lifetime stem cells (our price plans
are here: https://anjahealth.com/shop/#pricing). While we realize
that our price points are still an investment, we are currently the
most affordable and we think it's worth it because it could
potentially save a life. Our hope is to bring costs down over time,
so more people can access this potentially life-saving process.
Cord blood banking is a surprisingly little-known option for birth,
so a big part of our effort is in education and outreach. Most
umbilical cords and placentas are thrown away. (Side note:
plancentas are so valuable that physicians - especially in Europe -
sometimes prefer to take them for themselves to sell to cosmetics
research for ~$50k.) We have a medical advisory board with 2
OB/GYNs (Dr. Jay Chang and Dr. Allison Rodgers). Our lab has over
40 years of experience in the blood processing space, and our lab
director is a former AABB accreditor. Our lab is AABB accredited
and FDA approved. To conclude, if you had a baby recently and
banked cord blood, I'd be curious to know what your experiences
were. If you didn't, what prevented you from doing so? If you
haven't had children, what are your current perceptions of stem
cells? Looking forward to your comments!
Author : pkukp9
Score : 75 points
Date : 2022-02-11 19:29 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (anjahealth.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (anjahealth.com)
| biot wrote:
| My understanding is that stem cells are special because they have
| the potential to turn into any type of specialized cell the body
| needs, whereas regular cells have already turned into specialized
| cell types and there's no un-frying the egg, as it were.
|
| Has there been any research on producing stem cells from
| specialized cells? Or is there something fundamentally impossible
| about this, akin to producing the original content given only a
| hash value?
| pkukp9 wrote:
| Those types of stem cells can be extremely unstable and
| carcinogenic even, so yes, the ones that we collect are
| specialized specifically for either blood or tissue
| regeneration which is why they are more stable and not inclined
| to be carcinogenic.
| snystrom wrote:
| There has been a significant amount of work in this area. One
| of the most notable breakthroughs was from Shinya Yamanaka (and
| his lab) in 2006 & onward where they defined a core set of
| factors that can be expressed in adult cells to convert them
| back to embryonic stem cell-like states [1,2]. These cells are
| commonly referred to as induced pluripotent stem cells
| (abbreviated as iPSC's if you want to google them). There are a
| bunch of folks working on potential applications of the
| technology, but as you might imagine, it will take a lot of
| work the demonstrate safety & efficacy.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinya_Yamanaka [2]
| https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16904174/
| wswope wrote:
| I haven't kept up with the latest research, but the term for
| what you're asking about is "induced pluripotent stem cells".
| Jedd wrote:
| > Has there been any research on producing stem cells from
| specialized cells?
|
| Unsurprisingly, lots.
|
| People have been researching this for a long time, with some
| famous success stories, eg.
|
| https://dolly.roslin.ed.ac.uk/facts/the-life-of-dolly
| snystrom wrote:
| For some extra context, Dolly was not made using the iPSC
| approach (reversing differentiation from adult cells). Dolly
| was cloned using a process called Somatic Cell Nuclear
| Transfer, where the nucleus of an adult cell is placed inside
| an embryo, replacing the embryo's nucleus. The embryo then
| develops using the DNA of the individual that donated the
| nucleus.
|
| The article kind of alludes poorly to this, but somatic cell
| nuclear transfer (developed by John Durdon) was a huge
| milestone in the field that eventually led to Yamanaka's
| discovery of the pluripotency factors, for which they both
| won the Nobel prize in 2012.
| donnythecroc wrote:
| How do you compare to Cellino?
|
| Cellino is looking to automate the process we use to create human
| cells, most specifically, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).
| IPSCs are made from other cell types, like blood cells, then
| transformed back into stem cells, which can eventually
| differentiate into many different cell types.
| piecerough wrote:
| Services exist since a very long time now. The reality in the
| field seems to be that doctors are skeptical of the benefits due
| to lack of research breakthroughs. If you store the cells for 20
| years, it's also a question as to whether they are still usable
| or have degraded when stored for so long.
|
| Curious if you have any thoughts and of course, good luck with
| your company!
| pkukp9 wrote:
| They will be usable - no other research to demonstrate
| otherwise right now :) For sure - doctors are skeptical, but
| we've been able to reach OBs and convince them otherwise. Time
| will tell!
| bradly wrote:
| This is great! Couple of questions...
|
| - Who owns the stem cells/blood?
|
| - Can I move them to a different bank in the future if I choose
| to?
| vincefrancesi wrote:
| Congrats on the launch!
|
| I have considered this in the past, but had a some questions on
| the investment (and typically high recurring cost):
|
| 1. How many years will cord blood usable when frozen?
|
| 2. Do you think ongoing research like the way Harvard researchers
| found ways to reprogram skin cells to stem cells [1], if
| eventually commercialized, would be a headwind for your business?
|
| [1] https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/10/converting-
| sk...
| pkukp9 wrote:
| 1. They don't expire - there is not any evidence of detrimental
| deterioration 2. No - it's a different type of stem cell. The
| stem cells from cord blood are much more stable. Others have a
| risk of being carcinogenic even! ie embryonic stem cells
| [deleted]
| 1123581321 wrote:
| Interesting. What services to you provide to help manage and
| analyze material from multiple siblings, and do or will you take
| any special continuity measures?
| pkukp9 wrote:
| We process them all separately! We do this for twins as well.
| dzink wrote:
| The cost at established banks was 180 - 300 per year after the
| initial deposit. Some also separated the stem cells into multiple
| packets on deposit so you don't use all of it on one incident,
| unless you need to. How are you guys better?
| pkukp9 wrote:
| The multiple packets on deposit is actually a marketing tactic
| haha. There's a lot of chatter about using 2 vs. 5 compartments
| (our lab uses 5), but in reality, they are 2 large compartments
| or 5 small ones and people will generally use as many stem
| cells as they can if an emergency health situation comes about.
|
| We're different because 1. pricing - we offer monthly payments
| (we have offered annual upon request). When you add up all
| banks' costs to cover 20 years, we are the cheapest option. 2.
| We process stem cells manually (by hand), which can yield up to
| 25% more stem cells than if they are processed with a
| machine/automatically. Our brand is built around evidence-based
| personalization. 3. We offer placenta banking, which requires a
| more advanced lab that we have access to. 4. We have a brand
| and community behind us. Many parents tell us that they choose
| us over other banks because we have such personal customer
| service where everyone feels educated walking into the process
| of banking and they feel comfort walking out of the process of
| banking.
| Grustaf wrote:
| But you are MORE expensive than all the examples cited. How
| is that an advantage?
|
| As to brand, how does that help?
|
| What kind of personalisation do you offer?
| pkukp9 wrote:
| We are LESS expensive than current other options - I
| believe the other options mentioned are price points
| offered many years ago haha. We are $35/mo for 8 years to
| cover 20 years of storage. That is our cheapest - check our
| a price breakdown at anjahealth.com/shop/#pricing
|
| As a brand, it helps because people of color can be most
| affected by being unable to find a stem cell match. And
| people of color - on average - have lower income in the US,
| so having lower prices makes us more accessible.
|
| Personalization happens technically with manual processing.
| It also happens emotionally because we cater to every
| single customer to make sure that they feel supported
| regardless of what their birth plan/unforeseen
| circumstances are
| mattlondon wrote:
| This seems very expensive to me. We are paying approx
| PS8/11USD per month for umbilical cord, blood and
| placenta. This pricing was from last year.
| Grustaf wrote:
| Yeah I googled it quickly and that gives me prices around
| 100 a year. Random example from NBC News below. Perhaps
| Anja's initial costs are lower?
|
| "Private cord blood banking can be expensive. Depending
| on the bank, current promotions and whether you're
| storing cord blood, cord tissue or both, initial
| processing fees can run from roughly $500 to $2,500, with
| annual storage fees of $100 to $300 each year
| thereafter."
| https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/cord-blood-
| banking...
| Grustaf wrote:
| You having a strong brand helps people of color? Now you
| completely lost me. What do you mean?
|
| So personalisation doesn't mean that the harvesting or
| storing is personalised? It just means you are
| emotionally supportive? Aren't your competitors
| supportive?
| MattGaiser wrote:
| > However, we couldn't find a match because matching happens via
| ethnicity (at a high level), and my brother and I are mixed race.
| So, lack of access to cord blood stem cells is a pain point that
| my family knows deeply,
|
| I am a mix of White, Chinese, and Caribbean Black, so this alarms
| me, as I seriously doubt that there are many people with my
| particular makeup out there.
|
| A long way from having kids, but at least for me, this made the
| value proposition for this a lot more relevant for if/when I do.
| pkukp9 wrote:
| For sure! So glad you will!
| laktek wrote:
| Congrats on your launch!
|
| We had our baby two weeks ago (a mixed race kid as well) --
| luckily we managed to find a service here in Australia and get
| his cord blood stored at the last minute. I didn't know this is a
| thing and could be vital for my kid's future health. My in-laws
| work in the medical industry and they were the ones who suggested
| us to do it. I was curious why isn't this suggested or
| recommended by OB/GYNs during pregnancy? Are there still any
| medical restrictions for using of cord blood?
|
| Also, is 20 years the maximum effective storage period for it? Is
| it possible to transfer it between countries in case we decide to
| migrate in the future?
| pkukp9 wrote:
| Recently spoke with a OB who said that he didn't like to
| mention it in the past because he felt slimy knowing that
| companies were hiking up their prices (since demand can be
| inelastic for baby health related products). He recently signed
| with us as an advisor because he knew we were well-intentioned
| and properly building an onboarding flow & company made for
| parents and for them only.
|
| No evidence to show that extensive storage will damage the
| product! Potentially re: transfer, although it would depend on
| who is transferring & how
| adv0r wrote:
| is there any science backing this? case studies of actual people
| actually benefiting from it?
| pkukp9 wrote:
| Definitely! Many. We have an open source cord blood banking
| library if you'd like to take a look
| (https://anjahealth.notion.site/Cord-Blood-Banking-
| Library-60...)
|
| Highlights include real cases of cord blood being used to
| reverse type 1 diabetes
| (https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240160#1),
| significantly improve symptoms of Chron's
| (https://www.dvcstem.com/post/stem-cell-crohns-case-study),
| promote CAR-T cell therapy
| (https://www.cancertherapyadvisor.com/home/cancer-
| topics/hema...), treating neuroblastoma on a 7-year-old
| (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1357627/), and more!
| vharuck wrote:
| My wife and I had our first child last October, and we wanted to
| collect the cord blood to donate, but the hospital said they
| didn't do cord blood collection. I know you can't speak for our
| specific hospital, but would that be a problem for other
| customers? Hospitals preventing nurses from collecting blood
| because of safety or liability concerns?
| pkukp9 wrote:
| Donations are pretty heavily concentrated in New York City and
| they have a hard time collecting from other areas.
|
| As for cord blood banking, anyone who can get a kit (which
| should be everyone because we ship nationally) should be able
| to bank, but in the rare cases that doctors push back, you can
| request that they put in your medical record that they are
| refusing, and usually they will reconsider because - inversely
| -they don't want to take on the liability of not banking haha
| HWR_14 wrote:
| I'm just curious/ignorant, but I thought I just saw a news study
| (here on HN) that said DNA has a half-life of 5 years at room
| temperature, and became unusablely corrupted even at below
| freezing temperatures in a similar time period (with 1%
| corruption). Does the supercooling change that timeline
| significantly?
| kitrose wrote:
| For someone who hasn't encountered this before and is expecting
| their first child in a couple months -- how common is this in
| practice today?
| pkukp9 wrote:
| Congrats!! We pride ourselves on our customer service, so if
| you have any questions, definitely feel free to reach out to
| us.
|
| In the US, only about 2% of parents bank cord blood due to a
| huge awareness issue (that 2% is concentrated in wealthy, urban
| areas - think Greenwich, Beverly Hills, Upper East Side). In
| Singapore, however, rates can be as high as 30%, and in certain
| areas of China it's at around 10%. The greatest barrier in the
| US is for sure awareness and secondarily pricing, so we're
| working on trying to lower costs. When you first read this
| post, what was your first reaction? What are you most curious
| about?
| e-clinton wrote:
| For those who can afford it, it's somewhat common. I did this
| for our son. Just another insurance policy to give your kid
| every chance
| pkukp9 wrote:
| So glad you did!
| mattlondon wrote:
| We found it was quite common, and for the prices we paid (which
| are _significantly_ cheaper than this startup - YMMV) it was a
| no brainer.
|
| I was not convinced on the science today, but when it is cheap
| I figured that it is worth a punt on the assumption that
| science will improve in the next two decades. If not you've
| only spent about as much as a new Mac book Pro (from most
| providers) so worth the gamble.
| mattlondon wrote:
| This seems very expensive to me.
|
| We got something similar from a private company here in London -
| umbilical cord, blood, placenta - and the storage fee is PS100
| _per year_.l (there was an initial "set up" fee of approx
| PS2,000 too). 85USD a month for storage seems like a lot for the
| same thing.
|
| We figured that we'd spend perhaps PS3,800 all-in to "insure" our
| kid until they're an adult which seemed like a great deal. 18k
| USD just for storage seems like less of a clear-cut value
| proposition.
| pkukp9 wrote:
| Hi! How long are you paying that? Is it for life?
|
| Our's is $35, 65, or 85/mo for 8 years to cover 20 years of
| storage. So it's nowhere near 18k
| mattlondon wrote:
| The pricing page says 85USD/month so I multiplied 85 x 12 x
| 18 for 18 years storage - I.e. 18,360.
|
| We are paying PS100 a year for as long as we want to keep it.
| hombre_fatal wrote:
| I guess it's like data backups: you don't actually know if
| you have a good deal until you need to retrieve and use it.
| hombre_fatal wrote:
| jdrc wrote:
| Is this business viable anymore? Don't we have the Yamanaka
| factors to reprogram any kind of cells to various levels of
| undifferentiation? Sounds like an investment with guaranteed zero
| return at some point in the near future.
|
| Also as ohter say there are public banks for these in many
| european countries and the cost is ~ $1000 (but they are not
| available for everyone). There is also a perception that these
| companies are selling a service that won't be needed - just
| feeding off the hopes/fears of young parents.
| pkukp9 wrote:
| It's an investment with tremendous return - I personally know
| the return first hand. If my brother had access to these stem
| cells, his motor skills could've been improved, which could've
| led him to more easily be able to do things like cough when he
| had pneumonia (which ultimately led to the downfall of his
| health). Reprogramming into other cells can create an extremely
| unstable cell and a carcinogenic environment
|
| Survival rates from stem cell treatments are also much higher
| if the stem cells come from a genetically related sample - the
| best is your own. Beyond that, many may not find a match if
| you're a person of color or mixed race. This is also a pain
| point my family personally faced
| jdrc wrote:
| That was decades ago though. AFAIK nowadays all countries
| operate large banks - the UK has a big one. It s likely that
| a donor CAN be found through such banks. Besides, this kind
| of commercial approach is not systematic and doesnt guarantee
| diversity of samples in any way -- in fact people from
| economically disadvantaged genetic backgrounds will have less
| access to it. Diversity is somethign that public bases do
| take into account.
| worldmerge wrote:
| This is really interesting! I had no idea about this industry but
| it seems fascinating.
|
| Are you hiring?
| lharries wrote:
| Congratulations on the launch! Would love to know (1) what's the
| science like supporting this and (2) as a startup how do you
| guarantee the stems cells will still be around in 10/50 years?
| pkukp9 wrote:
| We have an open source cord blood banking library if you'd like
| to take a look (https://anjahealth.notion.site/Cord-Blood-
| Banking-Library-60...) Highlights include real cases of cord
| blood being used to reverse type 1 diabetes
| (https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240160#1),
| significantly improve symptoms of Chron's
| (https://www.dvcstem.com/post/stem-cell-crohns-case-study),
| promote CAR-T cell therapy
| (https://www.cancertherapyadvisor.com/home/cancer-
| topics/hema...), treating neuroblastoma on a 7-year-old
| (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1357627/), and more!
|
| Most notably, I like to point out that banking over donating is
| what we advocate for because using a donor's hematopoietic stem
| cells risks rejection and even fatality, so using a genetically
| related (or your own) stem cells increases your chances of
| survival
| (https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejm199708073370602)
|
| As a startup, we have a legal obligation to ensure that the CRM
| is handed off in case anything happens to the company. Our lab
| has been around for over 40 years processing different kinds of
| blood products, so they are definitely not going anywhere (and
| the blood products our clients stored wouldn't either), and
| they would simply communicate with a new CRM.
| ok_dad wrote:
| > To conclude, if you had a baby recently and banked cord blood,
| I'd be curious to know what your experiences were. If you didn't,
| what prevented you from doing so?
|
| I had no idea this was a thing when my son was born. I trusted
| the doctors and staff of my medical HMO (Kaiser) to tell us what
| steps to take at each point in the process.
| pkukp9 wrote:
| Ah I see - we'd love to help out next time!
| andy_ppp wrote:
| This is brilliant and I wouldn't be surprised if this doesn't
| lead to many years of extra life for people who get this for
| their children. I think in 60-70 years time the possibilities of
| this material being used for both injuries, diseases and life
| extension could be huge. And what a beautiful story to try to
| help people like your brother. I've no doubt you'll be hugely
| successful with it. Good luck.
| pkukp9 wrote:
| Thank you so much! Your support means the world :)
| sramam wrote:
| My kids' (16 & 11) cord-blood and tissue were frozen with a
| similar service at birth.
|
| I saw your pricing and was a bit shocked that it's 3x what I pay
| on an annualized basis. However, my rate seems to have been
| grandfathered in - the other service has also updated their
| pricing to match yours.
|
| 1. Is there anything particularly different from the competition
| that you offer?
|
| 2. Is there a reason for such a steep price increase? (While I
| understand the monthly payments, a 3x multiple over 16 years
| seems pretty steep. You, like the service we used, offer ~20 year
| storage commitment. Should I be preparing to pay 10 times as much
| if we want to preserve it for the 20-40 year age span?)
| pkukp9 wrote:
| Hi! 1. Yes - we are more affordable, offer placenta banking
| (which few other banks offer), and we process stem cells
| manually (by hand) as opposed to automatically, which recovers
| up to 25% more stem cells than other automated approaches 2. It
| depends on the agreement you signed - some agreements have
| disclosures about inflation impacting pricing, so perhaps. We
| structured our pricing around expedited shipping to our lab
| with biological goods & cryopreservation
| gautamdivgi wrote:
| It's good you did that. We passed on doing it for both our
| daughters (11 & 7). In hindsight after my younger daughter was
| diagnosed with Leukemia the decision not to do it wasn't really
| good. She's in remission and fine now. But you never know when
| treatments would be facilitated by the stem cells.
| pkukp9 wrote:
| I'm so sorry about your daughter. Did she ever find a cord
| blood donor?
| gautamdivgi wrote:
| The regular chemo treatment was good enough. For childhook
| Leukemia the remission rates are almost approaching a cure.
| So in a sense we were lucky.
| pkukp9 wrote:
| I'm glad!
| tempestn wrote:
| I've heard of other services that will extract and then
| culture stem cells from milk teeth or even from bone marrow.
| Have halfway considered it, but making a special trip and
| expense to get bone marrow extracted on the off chance it'll
| be useful in the future is a bit tough to convince oneself to
| do...
| jnsie wrote:
| Nothing to add except I'm glad your daughter is doing better!
| Grustaf wrote:
| Isn't it a bit strange to market a brand new startup as the
| "reliable" alternative?
| pkukp9 wrote:
| It's not marketed as "reliable" moreso "accessible." haha
| although I would say that we are reliable as well. If anything
| ever happens, we have a legal obligation to shift CRM. It's as
| if a storage unit were to shut down and had other people's
| items in it. We have a legal responsibility to make sure that
| it's managed safely and accordingly
| Grustaf wrote:
| The second sentence on your website is "Finding a reliable
| place to bank your umbilical cord, cord blood, and placenta
| stem cells is hard".
|
| By the way, the first sentence is "Get your personalized cord
| blood plan in minutes." but it seems from the other thread
| that there is no personalisation, every plan is the same?
| mikepurvis wrote:
| Parent of three kids in Ontario. We definitely looked into this
| when our first was born 10 years ago, but the costs were way out
| of reach as something so speculative for a young couple just
| starting out and needing to choose our battles as far as
| finances.
|
| I don't think donation was ever raised as a possibility; given
| that we never signed a consent for that, I assume it was all just
| disposed of.
| pkukp9 wrote:
| For the most part, it is disposed of unfortunately :( there's
| super limited awareness on cord blood banking in the US
| lawrencevillain wrote:
| We're expecting our second here in a few months, and from my
| research it's really expensive and most folks would be better off
| donating. I feel like banks feed too much off of peoples fears
| instead of the better good. What are the odds of someone needing
| their own cord blood vs. it being a publicly accessible thing? It
| feels like donating blood to a bank to store it for myself in
| case I ever need it.
|
| Again, it's an exciting field with a lot of really good outcomes,
| but it kind of plays into the whole, "what if something happens
| to your kid fear" to sell it to people, instead of thinking about
| all the other kids that you could be saving.
| pkukp9 wrote:
| Congrats!! Donating can definitely be positive, but I think in
| a perfect world everyone has access to their own stem cells.
| Chances of survival are higher if you use a genetically related
| donor for a stem cell treatment. Beyond that, I'm a firm
| believer in the fact that if someone has access to these stem
| cells, they will use it at some point in life. Even if someone
| spends their whole life being healthy, they could be used for
| dementia/whatever old age brings. In the US, this is not quite
| as popular, but in other countries, people use stem cells in
| the same way they use botox - for anti-aging purposes. It could
| potentially be used for that down the line too.
|
| Plus, standards for donations are very high. Some donations are
| rejected, so if you try to donate and it's rejected, then
| nobody wins :(
|
| As for the fear mongering-related marketing, we do our very
| best to stay away from that, but truthfully it's a necessary
| thought when it comes to positioning a preventative care
| product.
| pkukp9 wrote:
| Standards for donations meaning volume, certain history of
| disease, etc.
| Donmario wrote:
| This is something that exists in Poland from at least 2017. I've
| done it for 2 of my children. Setup cost 700usd (based on
| package), yearly 200 usd - https://www.pbkm.pl/
| grujicd wrote:
| It existed at least in 2006 in Serbia, and probably few years
| before that. Operated by Swiss CryoSave company. It was upfront
| lifetime payment, something around 2000EUR. Although this price
| was more affordable than cumulative monthly payments, there was
| a scandal with that company. I think they bankrupted, but some
| Polish cryo bank took the bio material. So maybe upfront
| payment is not that sustainable (who would have thought?).
|
| Btw. we deposited stem cells for our second child born in 2010,
| and when this scandal happened I tried not to think too much
| about it and just be grateful that we don't need that material.
| It should be still safe in that other bank though.
| pkukp9 wrote:
| Amazing! So glad you did
| otoburb wrote:
| Congrats on your launch!
|
| How is Anja Health different from other established US providers
| such as Cord Blood Registry, Via-Cord, or Cryo-Cell?
|
| Also, if our family already has a sample frozen at one of these
| other facilities, and assuming there's a compelling reason to
| switch, do you have a tissue sample transfer mechanism/protocol?
|
| >> _If you didn't, what prevented you from doing so?_
|
| Didn't for our first child because we weren't aware
| (education/awareness issue), but we did it for the second child.
| It feels like a tail risk hedge, and literally YOLO-type analysis
| is what motivates us to continue paying for the sample to stay
| frozen.
| pkukp9 wrote:
| Thank you! We're different in a few ways: 1. More affordable
| pricing. 2. We manually process stem cells vs. automatically
| processing them (can yield up to 25% more stem cells this way)
| 3. We offer placenta banking 4. We have a brand and community
| behind us! I've built out a following on TikTok of about 80k
| thus far (has grown by about 25k since the batch began, so
| growing quickly), and I think many resonate with our brand and
| especially my personal story, which I talk about often
|
| So glad you did it for your second! Siblings can be a 75%
| match, so that's awesome. Love the term YOLO-type analysis haha
| Grustaf wrote:
| Perhaps I'm in the minority here, but I don't necessarily
| feel that having a large tiktok following is a plus for a
| medical service provider.
| pkukp9 wrote:
| Distribution is distribution :)
| Grustaf wrote:
| I don't doubt that it's a good way for you to quickly get
| customers. I just would never use it myself.
|
| But it's getting pretty clear that the only innovation
| here is to target lower income families than your
| competitors, by using platforms like tiktok and charging
| a low upfront fee (but higher monthly fee).
| pkukp9 wrote:
| Yup! Lower income families like us because we are
| accessible. Higher income families & providers as well
| like us because of our personalization and onboarding
| grujicd wrote:
| Especially when you're considering something very long
| term. What does TikTok branding mean in 20-year timespan?
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