Virgin group boss Sir Richard Branson announced on Thursday that he was setting up a blood bank to store the stem cells from newborn babies' umbilical cords. The non-profit bank to be called Virgin Health Bank, eventually hopes to store about 300,000 cord blood samples. 

Branson revealed that he thought of the health bank after being approached by Britain's national blood bank. The blood bank said "there were quite a lot of children dying in Britain unnecessarily because there was not enough cord blood stored," Branson said.

He added that since Britain's public health service appeared reluctant to accept private money, he had decided to set up a private health bank. "So what we've decided to do is set up a company that can get out there and increase the number of samples dramatically," he said.

The plan calls for parents to pay $2,940 in order to store their child's cord blood into a freezer for two decades. Branson said that any profits from the venture would be directed toward research efforts.