Chang: I think the chances are slim. Financial institutions can grow through M&A to enhance their strength in financial assets, channels and manpower.
But looking back on the cord blood storage industry, the equipment, technology standards and quality are uneven among our peer companies.
We would have to bear full obligation for any mistakes or service imperfections of the companies we acquire, such as pollution or the absence of activity of the stored cord blood, over the next several decades.
Since expansion through M&A has its potential risks, we think the industry will consolidate through a natural market elimination mechanism.
TT: The necessity of storing cord blood seems to remain a central issue in the health and medical care sector. Some doctors warned people about the lack of activity when cord blood is defrosted 30 or 50 years from now. How do you respond to that question?
Chang: Indeed, there are many arguments on these two issues. We store cord blood in the containers filled with nitrogen of negative -196?C and it is theoretically possible to prevent corruption and to retain the blood's activity once it is defrosted decades from now.
An experiment conducted in the Czech Republic around two years ago found that cord blood stored for 15 years was similarly active within the acceptable inaccuracy range as cord blood that was stored for merely two weeks after both were defrosted.
Since cord blood is stored in an ultra low temperature environment, no chemical changes occur. From the results of that experiment, we can infer, based on physical principle, that the cord blood will remain active after being stored for 30 or 60 years from now, as long as the management process remains intact.
I think that scientific reasoning speaks louder than anything in this aspect. So the matter that consumers should watch out for is their service providers' management quality in gathering and storing the blood against the factors of pollution and corruption.
TT: Some medical research institutes argue that the chance of one person using their own cord blood as treatment is as little as 1/10,000 or even 1/20,0000 in one's own life. Hence, it does not seem economical to spend a considerable amount on storing cord blood. What's your view on this issue?
Chang: Cord blood is not a resource for today, but for tomorrow. It is an investment in the future. We should not use today's knowledge or technology to make judgments on this issue.
People get old and the function of their internal organs declines or collapses. The time for today's babies to use cord blood stem cell treatments is in the next 50 or 70 years.
The process of reproducing internal organs like the heart or lungs has now moved to the stage of animal experiments after merely a 10-year development process.
The chances are very high that stem cell treatments will be able to apply to humans in the next decade or so.
Stem cells can not only be used to improve people's quality of life by curing diseases like stroke, paralysis, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, but also to enhance people's living quality by remedying baldness or beautifying the skin.
We cannot guarantee that all of these stem cell applications will be fully realized, but we have faith in future technological development. And we will leave the consumers to make their own call.
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