Australia Approves Cord Blood for Cerebral Palsy
In a landmark decision, Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has approved the use of privately banked umbilical cord blood for treating cerebral palsy on a case-by-case basis through its Special Access Scheme.1 This move from research to real-world application was highlighted in April 2025, when Zara, a young girl with CP, became the first child in the country to receive her own banked cord blood as a therapy outside of a clinical trial.
The compassionate access pathway, facilitated by advocacy from organizations like the Cerebral Palsy Alliance, allows physicians to apply for treatment on behalf of their patients. For families who have made the forward-thinking decision to privately bank their child's cord blood, this offers an invaluable opportunity to access a potentially life-changing therapy at home, with costs typically covered by the national healthcare system. This marks a significant step beyond therapies that only manage symptoms, with research showing its potential to improve long-term brain and motor function by using the powerful stem and immune cells from a child's own cord blood.
This development underscores the growing recognition of cord blood's therapeutic potential and highlights the importance of private banking as a means of securing future health options. While current regulations restrict this access to autologous or sibling-matched units, this milestone paves the way for broader conversations about making donor UCB from public banks more accessible in the future.
Seeing Australia provides hope to other countries, including the US, that they too will soon approve this potentially life-changing therapy, bringing new possibilities to families at home.
Read More
1 All information and quotations in this article, unless otherwise noted, are from Cerebral Palsy Alliance. Umbilical cord blood and cerebral palsy. Advocacy. Published 2025-05-22. Subsequent citations to this source will not be made.