A tissue bank sits between the donor and the clinic. It receives recovered tissue, screens and processes it, assigns it a lot identifier, stores it under the conditions the tissue requires, and releases it only after internal and third-party testing criteria are met. For perinatal tissue, recovery is often tied to a scheduled delivery, with processing beginning within a defined window afterward; confirm the specific window with the supplier for any lot you are evaluating.
Not every company that sells allografts is itself a tissue bank. Some suppliers operate their own recovery and processing, while others distribute product sourced from a bank and resell it under their own label. The distinction matters for traceability: a buyer should be able to trace a lot back to the entity that actually processed and released it, not just the company that shipped the box.
When evaluating a supplier, a clinic can ask directly whether the company processes tissue itself or distributes product processed elsewhere, and request registration and licensure documentation for whichever entity performed recovery and processing. Processing described by a supplier as following FDA human cell and tissue regulations and industry guidance such as AATB and AABB standards should still be verified against the documentation for the specific lot, rather than taken as given.
Knowing who actually processed a lot, and under what oversight, is the basis for any traceability or compliance review a clinic will need to perform.