AMAG Pharma to buy Cord Blood Registry for $700 million

US drugmaker AMAG Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: AMAG) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Cord Blood Registry (CBR), the world's largest stem cell collection and storage company serving pregnant women and their families, for $700 million.

The acquisition of CBR, from private equity firm GTCR, would expand AMAG's suite of maternal health offerings and add a high-margin business with complementary commercial capabilities and attractive future growth opportunities to the AMAG portfolio.

CBR owns a state-of-the-art storage facility that houses more than 600,000 preserved umbilical cord blood and tissue stem cell units, which represents more than half of all privately stored cord units in the USA. CBR also partners with leading academic institutions that conduct clinical trials focused on evaluating the use of stem cells for regenerative medicine applications in diseases and conditions that have no cure today, including autism, cerebral palsy and pediatric stroke. To date, CBR has helped more families than any other cord blood company use their privately banked cord blood for established and investigational treatments.