SAN BRUNO, Calif., March 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Cbr Systems, Inc. (Cord Blood Registry), the leading provider of services for the storing and processing of newborn cord blood stem cells, announced today that it has filed a complaint against ViaCell, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAC) and its wholly owned subsidiary Viacord, Inc. for false and misleading advertising and related unlawful conduct. The complaint, filed on February 25, 2005 in the Federal District Court in San Francisco, alleges that ViaCell and Viacord have disseminated and continue to disseminate false and misleading advertising to the public in an effort to promote their umbilical cord blood stem cell preservation services. Cord blood banking is a process that allows parents to have the stem cells from a newborn's cord blood saved for potential future medical uses.

"Cord Blood Registry is the leader in this fast-growing market and enjoys a position of being the world's largest family cord blood bank with triple-digit-growth in recent periods," says Stephen M. Grant, Vice President of Communications for CBR. "We have spent a decade building a strong reputation of trust and are highly recommended by the nation's leading obstetricians for cord blood stem cell services. Viacord's unfounded claims in these areas are damaging to the CBR brand and misleading to consumers." Additional false statements made by Viacord regarding their pricing and consumer guarantee, as well as unsubstantiated claims about their cell recovery rates and storage systems, are among other complaints named in the lawsuit.

CBR filed a complaint in the Federal Court as a final step to gain compliance from Viacord in correcting the misleading and untruthful statements to physicians and consumers in their marketing materials. "Although we would have preferred to handle this outside of the legal system, Viacord failed to correct the information in a timely and effective manner," says Grant.

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