Dubai-based CellSave Arabia has signed an exclusive partnership with HMS Group to provide newborn stem cell preservation services across the healthcare group’s Dubai network, strengthening the role of maternity units as a front line for family counselling on cord blood and birth-tissue banking.The agreement gives CellSave Arabia exclusive status as provider of cord blood, cord tissue, placental tissue, cord vessel and related perinatal tissue preservation services within the HMS Group platform. It also covers patient education, including antenatal sessions and awareness programmes designed to help expectant parents understand collection, storage, consent, costs and possible future therapeutic use before delivery.
The partnership comes as Dubai’s private healthcare sector expands and competition intensifies among hospitals, fertility centres, maternity providers and specialist laboratories. Licensed healthcare facilities in the emirate rose to about 5,800 in 2025 from 5,340 a year earlier, while the private healthcare workforce exceeded 69,400 professionals. The growth has increased pressure on providers to add specialised services that can differentiate maternity care beyond obstetrics, neonatal support and postnatal follow-up.
CellSave Arabia, based in Dubai Healthcare City, is one of the region’s longest-operating private stem cell banking businesses. Founded in 2005 and launched commercially in 2006, the company operates as part of CSG. BIO Group and has built its business around newborn stem cell preservation, biobanking quality systems and cellular therapy support. Its services cover collection, processing and cryogenic storage of biological material from umbilical cord blood and birth tissues that are otherwise discarded after childbirth.
HMS Group operates four specialised healthcare facilities in Dubai: HMS Al Garhoud Hospital, HMS Mirdif Hospital, HMS FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence and HMS DXBone Excellence Centre. Its hospital network gives the arrangement a maternity and outpatient channel through which CellSave can reach families earlier in pregnancy, while HMS can add an advanced preservation option to its women’s health services without building a laboratory platform of its own.
The commercial significance lies in the timing. Private hospitals across Dubai are moving towards integrated care pathways that combine consultation, diagnostics, education and elective medical services under one patient relationship. Maternity has become a prominent part of that model because expectant parents often make several care decisions in a short period, from antenatal screening and delivery planning to newborn care and long-term family health planning.
Cord blood contains blood-forming stem cells that are used in transplants for certain blood cancers, immune disorders and inherited metabolic conditions. Medical guidance generally distinguishes these established haematopoietic uses from broader regenerative medicine applications, many of which remain under clinical study or are subject to regulatory restrictions. That distinction is important for patient counselling because families are often exposed to optimistic claims about future therapies while weighing a private banking decision.
Patient education is therefore likely to be a central test of the partnership. Antenatal classes and awareness programmes can help parents assess whether private storage is appropriate for their family, particularly where there is a known medical history, a sibling with a treatable condition or a preference to preserve biological material for potential family use. Such sessions can also explain alternatives, including public donation where available, and the limits of using a child’s own stored cells for some inherited or malignant diseases.
CellSave Arabia has been adding to its regional profile through accreditation and healthcare partnerships. It has described itself as the GCC’s first private stem cell laboratory and has reported international accreditation milestones covering cord blood and somatic cell services. The company also announced qualification this year to support specialised cell storage linked to CAR T-cell therapy for lymphoma care, placing its laboratory operations within a broader shift towards advanced cellular therapies in the UAE.
For HMS Group, the partnership extends a women’s health and education strategy that has included obstetrics and gynaecology conferences and pregnancy-focused public engagement. Aligning with a specialist biobank gives the group a named partner for an area that requires laboratory governance, sample traceability, cold-chain procedures and regulated long-term storage.
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