Cord blood banking with Bioscience Institute costs €2,200 in the first year: a €200 enrolment fee plus €2,000 to process and freeze the cord blood. Storing cord blood and cord tissue together costs €2,600, and from the second year an annual storage fee of €50 applies, so 20 years of cord blood storage cost €3,150 in total.
These are the 2026 prices from our official price list (PDF, in Italian) for saving stem cells at birth in our own cryobank in San Marino. Bioscience Institute has run GMP laboratories and biobanks since 2007; you can read about our wider stem cell work on the dedicated page. Below you will find what each fee covers, when you pay, how the contract works and whether cord blood banking is worth the cost.
Cord blood banking cost: 2026 prices
The price comes in three parts: a one-off enrolment fee, the freezing service you choose (cord blood, cord tissue or both) and an annual storage fee from the second year. Courier transport of the sample and taxes are already included.
| Fee | Price | When and how you pay |
|---|---|---|
| Enrolment fee (compulsory) | €200 | Cash on delivery of the collection kit, or in advance by bank transfer |
| Cord blood processing and freezing | €2,000 | After freezing: SEPA direct debit, credit card or bank transfer |
| Cord tissue only | €600 | After freezing, same methods |
| Cord blood and cord tissue | €2,400 | After freezing, same methods |
| Annual storage fee (compulsory) | €50, indexed to Italian ISTAT inflation | From the second year of storage, by SEPA direct debit |
| Twins | €1,000 instead of €2,000 to freeze the second baby's cord blood (50% off) | As for freezing |
| Instalments | On request | Ask before enrolling; subject to approval by Bioscience Institute SpA |
The bank details for a transfer are printed on the invoice you receive by email, so there is nothing to look up in advance. The maternal blood tests required before birth and six months after it are not part of the price list.
How much does stem cell banking cost over 20 years?
Stem cell banking costs €3,150 over 20 years for cord blood alone and €3,550 for cord blood plus cord tissue. These totals use list prices before the annual ISTAT adjustment of the storage fee:
- Cord blood only, first year: €200 + €2,000 = €2,200. The first year of storage is included in the freezing fee.
- Cord blood and tissue, first year: €200 + €2,400 = €2,600.
- Cord blood stored for 20 years: €2,200 + 19 annual fees of €50 = €3,150.
- Cord blood and tissue stored for 20 years: €2,600 + 19 × €50 = €3,550.
- Cord tissue only, first year: €200 + €600 = €800.
Most of the cost falls at birth; after that, keeping the sample costs €50 a year. With twins, freezing the second baby's cord blood costs €1,000 instead of €2,000.
What each fee includes
The price covers the whole journey of the sample, from the collection kit to the first year in the cryobank, including transport and taxes. The contract lists what each fee covers.
Enrolment fee (€200)
It covers shipping of the collection kit: a rigid, watertight insulated case with a sterile cord blood collection bag, disinfectant and sterile gauze, an insulated pouch for the bag, the sample label, collection instructions, the storage contract and the paperwork the hospital needs.
Cord blood processing and freezing (€2,000)
- courier transport of the sample from the hospital to our San Marino laboratory;
- processing of the blood and extraction of the stem cells;
- laboratory tests for cryopreservation and certification of the processing outcome;
- freezing of the stem cells in a bag and overwrap bag;
- cryopreservation for the whole first year.
If the sample is ever released for treatment, the fee also covers reimbursement of HLA typing on the sample and the recipient, transport in liquid nitrogen with the shipping container, and reimbursement of documented transplant expenses up to €20,000.
Cord tissue (€600) or cord blood and tissue (€2,400)
The tissue service covers freezing and cryopreservation of a segment of umbilical cord tissue collected at birth. If you choose both but only one of the two samples can be frozen, you are invoiced the cord blood price or the tissue price only.
Annual storage fee (€50)
It covers cryopreservation of the cord blood and/or tissue sample for every year from the second onwards, for the full length of the contract. The amount follows the ISTAT index and the invoice arrives by email once a year.
Within 60 days of paying the freezing invoice you receive, by email, a cryopreservation certificate showing the characteristics of the sample: viability, stem cell number, white blood cell count and sterility.
The costs of the service offered by the Bioscience Institute
The conservation costs include a contribution to conservation and the payment of an annual fee.
To receive the Collection Kit, only the membership costs must be paid in advance, while the payment of the cryopreservation service will be required only after freezing.
Why does the Bioscience Institute propose a contract that provides for the payment of the annual fee?
The Bioscience Institute proposes a contract that provides for the payment of an annual fee because in the biotechnology sector, quality is obtained and maintained over the years only through investments of high economic value. In biological cryopreservation, ensuring a high standard of quality is the only way to preserve cord blood stem cell samples so that they can be used for a transplant. The payment of an annual fee for the maintenance of biological samples represents the safest method to guarantee, year after year, the coverage of the costs generated by their conservation.
When and how you pay
You pay only the €200 enrolment fee up front; the freezing fee is invoiced by email only once freezing has succeeded. The annual storage fee starts in the second year.
Payment methods
The enrolment fee is paid cash on delivery when the courier brings the kit, or in advance by bank transfer. The freezing fee can be paid by bank transfer, by SEPA direct debit or by credit card through a link sent to you by email after the invoice. The annual fee is collected by SEPA direct debit; the mandate form comes with the contract.
Instalments
You can pay for the services in instalments. Ask before enrolling, by contacting our administration office at least 15 days before your due date; instalments are subject to approval by Bioscience Institute SpA.
Twins
For twins, freezing the second baby's cord blood costs €1,000 instead of €2,000. The contract applies the 50% discount to freezing, characterisation and molecular biology of the second baby's cord blood and/or tissue sample.
When you pay nothing more, or get a refund
- If no collection took place, or the sample was only assessed (CD34+ count and viability) but not frozen, you do not pay the balance.
- If one of the mother's tests in the last 30 days of pregnancy is positive, the amount paid on receipt of the kit is refunded.
- You can withdraw by returning the kit within 10 days of receiving it; the amount paid is refunded, minus the cost of shipping the kit.
Contract and costs
The conservation contract is provided inside the collection kit.
Bioscience Institute, as owner of the laboratories, offers parents a direct contract, without using any brokerage company.
This means that the company:
is directly responsible for its work, committing itself never to transfer the rights deriving from the contract to third parties
contractually undertakes to maintain the quality level of the procedures adopted and the structure in which it operates unchanged over time
stands as the sole interlocutor, as the owner of the laboratories where stem cells are physically stored
Useful information on the contract
Bioscience Institute is the company that signs the contract and at the same time provides the service.
This allows you to have a single point of contact, who responds directly for the work performed as it owns and directly manages the laboratories where the stem cells are physically stored.
Download the sample contract (PDF)
Warning!
If the company with which the CONTRACT is signed is free to transfer the rights to third parties, there is a risk of not being adequately protected: the company to which their stem cells have been entrusted could in fact transfer the rights to a company that does not guarantee the same quality standards.
If the contract is signed by an Italian company:
- the Italian company does not own the laboratories but is only an intermediary, because in Italy, by law, private banks for autologous stem cells are prohibited;
- it is an Italian company that buys the service from foreign banks for resale in Italy.
This is also why our cryobank is in San Marino. The Republic lies geographically within Italy, so samples from Italian hospitals travel by road with no customs checks, and the contract is governed by the law of San Marino. The laboratory complies with GMP under EU directives 2001/83/EC, 2003/94/EC and 2006/86/EC, and parents can visit it by appointment.
Stem cell banking cost in the UAE
The prices on this page apply to cord blood and cord tissue stored in our San Marino laboratory, paid in euros. Banks that serve families in the UAE publish their own price lists and contract terms, and the fee structure often differs more than the headline price suggests.
Wherever you give birth, compare offers on the same points:
- what is stored: cord blood only, cord tissue only, or both;
- whether storage is charged yearly or prepaid for a fixed term, and whether the fee is indexed to inflation;
- what the processing fee covers: collection kit, courier, laboratory tests, certificate, first year of storage;
- what happens on release: frozen transport, HLA typing, any contribution to transplant costs;
- how long the contract lasts and what renewal costs;
- whether the company that signs the contract also owns the laboratory.
For adult stem cells from adipose tissue, see our page on stem cell storage.
Is cord blood banking worth it?
Cord blood banking is worth it if you want stem cells kept for your own child and compatible family members, and you accept a cost of about €3,150 over 20 years with no promise of future use. Cord blood is an established source of hematopoietic stem cells: more than 40,000 cord blood transplants have been carried out worldwide, and cord blood is used in the treatment of around 100 serious diseases, including leukaemias, lymphomas and other blood disorders.
The limits matter as much as the benefits. Our contract states that therapeutic success cannot be promised, that a collected sample may not be sufficient, and that the uses of mesenchymal stem cells from cord tissue are still being studied. Public donation is free and can help any compatible patient, but the unit is not reserved for your family.
To compare the two sources, read cord blood stem cell storage and cord tissue stem cell storage.
Twenty years of conservation and then what?
The contract provides for a minimum duration of cryopreservation of 20 years and can be tacitly extended.
On the one hand, the actual potential of stem cell treatments has been known since 1988, the year in which for the first time a child recovered from Fanconi’s anemia, owing to a transplant of hematopoietic stem cells obtained from the blood of his younger sister who had just been born 1.
On the other hand, a more recent scientific publication has documented the success of an autologous transplant, in humans, of hematopoietic stem cells stored for a period of 21 years 2.
The Bioscience Institute offers the option of extending the contract while you continue to pay the annual fee 3.
In practice, from year 21 the contract renews automatically year by year at the same annual fee, with no new sign-up costs.
1. The Italian system of hematopoietic stem cell transplants. Alessandro Nanni Costa, National Transplant Center, ADISCO, 2009
2. Holter J et al. Successful autologous stem-cell transplantation after 21 years of cryopreservation. Transplantation. 2011 Apr 15;91(7):e54-5. doi: 10.1097/TP.0b013e31820f083c
3. Broxmeyer HE et al. Hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells, generation of induced pluripotent stem cells, and isolation of endothelial progenitors from 21- to 23.5-year cryopreserved cord blood. Blood. 2011 May 5;117(18):4773-7. doi: 10.1182/blood-2011-01-330514
Are you pregnant?
Start a few weeks before your due date. The mother's blood tests (anti-HIV 1 and 2, anti-HCV, HBsAg, anti-HBc, TPHA, anti-HTLV 1 and 2) are done within the 30 days before birth and repeated 180 days after it, and two signed copies of the contract must reach us before the birth.
You can order the kit from the collection kit page, and how to enroll explains each step from collection to freezing.
Are you thinking of storing your child's stem cells?
Cord blood is the blood that remains in the umbilical cord after the baby is born and is a valuable source of stem cells.
Until recently it was treated as “waste” and eliminated with hospital waste along with the placenta and the umbilical cord. It is currently used in the treatment of around 100 serious diseases.
FAQ
How much does cord blood banking cost?
At Bioscience Institute the first year costs €2,200 for cord blood (€200 enrolment plus €2,000 freezing) or €2,600 for cord blood and cord tissue. From the second year you pay an annual storage fee of €50, indexed to inflation.
What is included in the price?
The enrolment fee covers shipping of the collection kit. The freezing fee covers courier transport to the laboratory, processing, laboratory tests, the certificate, freezing and the first year of storage; prices include transport and taxes.
Is the annual storage fee compulsory?
Yes. It is €50 a year from the second year of storage, indexed to the Italian ISTAT inflation index and collected by SEPA direct debit, and it covers storage for the whole contract.
Can I pay in instalments?
Yes, on request. Ask before enrolling and at least 15 days before your due date; instalments are subject to approval by Bioscience Institute SpA.
Is there a discount for twins?
Yes. Freezing the second twin's cord blood costs €1,000 instead of €2,000, a 50% discount.
How long are the stem cells stored?
The contract lasts at least 20 years. From year 21 it renews automatically year by year as long as the annual fee is paid.
What happens if the stem cells are needed for a transplant?
We release the sample as agreed with you, lend the liquid nitrogen shipping container free of charge and cover HLA typing. We also reimburse documented transplant expenses up to €20,000.
Is cord blood banking worth it?
It is worth considering if you want stem cells reserved for your child and compatible relatives and accept the cost without a promise of future use. Cord blood is used in the treatment of around 100 serious diseases, but no therapeutic benefit can be promised in advance.
Scientific content reviewed by the Bioscience Institute Scientific Board. · Last updated
The information on this page is for general education and does not replace a consultation with a physician.
