Legislation to Reauthorize the C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program Could Impact Over 40,000 Lives in Five Years

NMDP^℠, the organization that operates the national registry of unrelated blood stem cell donors and cord blood units, applauds Representatives Chris Smith (R-NJ), Doris O. Matsui (D-CA), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Kweisi Mfume (D-MD) for the introduction of H.R. 5160, the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Reauthorization Act of 2025—a critical bipartisan bill that helps thousands of patients annually who are battling life-threatening blood cancers and diseases find a life-saving unrelated donor match.

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Representatives Chris Smith (R-NJ), Doris O. Matsui (D-CA), and Kweisi Mfume (D- MD) joined by Joanne Kurtzberg, MD, Professor of Pediatrics and Pathology at Duke University School of Medicine and Steven Devine, MD, Chief Medical Officer, NMDP on Capitol Hill on Sept. 10, 2025, in Washington, discuss the introduction of H.R. 5160, the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Reauthorization Act of 2025 – a sustained bipartisan, public-private partnership to continually increase access to cell therapies for the thousands of patients annually with blood cancers and diseases who need a lifesaving transplant. (Joy Asico-Smith/AP Content Services for NMDP)

The legislation would reauthorize the C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program for another five years. Since its inception, the Program has impacted more than 140,000 patients receiving transplant, such as from bone marrow, peripheral blood stem cell and cord blood, a 31% increase over the last five years. The Program’s role is to serve as the sole point of access: maintaining effective access for physicians to search over 42 million donors and over 760,000 cord blood units worldwide for their patients; recruiting more young, healthy, volunteer donors to join the registry; sharing information to enable recruitment of donated cord blood units; collecting transplant patient outcomes data and expanding long-term research to help patients live longer, healthier lives; and providing transplant information to the public.

“We are deeply grateful to Representatives Smith, Matsui, Bilirakis, Pingree, Tenney and Mfume for their steadfast and consistent leadership in championing patients and families needing access to life-saving transplant,” said Amy Ronneberg, CEO, NMDP. “Congress has continued to provide bipartisan support for this program, and with every reauthorization, that commitment to saving lives deepens. We proudly stand with our champions in Congress to ensure every patient in need has a chance to find their life-saving match.”

Each year, the nation’s registry connects thousands of patients with one of more than 42 million potential donors around the world—including 119,000 high quality, banked cord blood units though the National Cord Blood Inventory (NCBI). Seventy-five percent of patients don’t have a fully matched donor in their family and turn to the national registry to find an unrelated donor or cord blood unit to give them a second chance at life.

One of those patients is Hillary Husband, of Ruston, La., who was diagnosed with aggressive leukemia at age 14. After three relapses, a bone marrow transplant became her only hope. Her story illustrates that for some patients, a bone marrow transplant is not only the best chance, but a last hope for survival when all other treatments have failed.

“I didn’t have a matching family member, so we prayed an unrelated donor could be found,” Husband said. “Thanks to the C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program and NMDP, I got that second chance. I’ve now been in remission for over 10 years.”

Every year, 18,000 patients are diagnosed with life-threatening blood cancers or other diseases, like sickle cell or aplastic anemia, for which a blood stem cell transplant from a related or unrelated donor may be their best or only hope of a cure. Last year, NMDP impacted a record-breaking 7,994 patients’ lives by facilitating transplant.

To help every patient access life-saving transplant, NMDP partners with over 150 transplant centers across the U.S. to ensure every transplant physician has access to millions of healthy, volunteer donors for their searching patients. Thanks to advances in transplant medicine, in part driven by NMDP-sponsored research and its clinical trial site partners, more patients can now achieve the same chance to survive and thrive after transplant by using partially-matched, unrelated donors as from matched, related donors. Through NMDP’s initiative, “Donor for All,” the organization is expanding access to a growing number of patients from all backgrounds who may not have had any option for a cure or treatment from receiving transplant just five years ago.

Simultaneously, NMDP continues to call on more young, healthy adults ages 18 to 40, the age group that offers the best outcomes, to join the national donor registry and help save more lives. To learn more or sign up, visit: https://join.bethematch.org/transplantact.

About NMDP

At NMDP, we believe each of us holds the key to curing blood cancers and disorders. As a global nonprofit leader in cell therapy, NMDP creates essential connections between researchers and supporters to inspire action and accelerate innovation to find life-saving cures. With the help of blood stem cell donors from the world’s most diverse registry and our extensive network of transplant partners, physicians and caregivers, we’re expanding access to treatment so that every patient can receive their life-saving cell therapy.

NMDP. Find cures. Save lives. Learn more at nmdp.org.

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