Stem cell banks gain acceptance

HEALTH: Reliance, Lifecell and Cryobank have emerged leaders in the stem cell banking sector.

It was a keen desire to secure the future of his soon-to-be born baby that made Japin Sibal, a young IT professional from Gurgaon, do an Internet search for various savings schemes available before him.

Weeks after, he zeroed in on one option "" which was suggested to him by a friend and reinforced by his online enquiry "" to bank his child's cord blood stem cell.

Across metros and major towns of India, hundreds of young parents are doing what Sibal has done "" to harvest and preserve their child's cord blood for possible use in stem cell therapies for the baby or its immediate relatives. With 25 million births happening annually, stem cell banking in India offers great growth potential.

"I decided to go for stem cell banking for my child as I was confident of its usefulness. I found a lot of material on the Internet that suggested possible therapeutic opportunities using cord blood stem cells. Even our doctor suggested to go ahead," Sibal says.

Seizing the opportunity, entrepreneurs "" ranging from India's biggest corporate player Reliance to a local NGO "" are making early investments in setting up umbilical cord blood banks across the country.

While Reliance, Lifecell and Cryobank have already established a national footprint in cord blood stem cell banking, regional players are seeing this as a futuristic business option.

Leading the race is Chennai's Lifecell, which is known to have harvested over 10,000 units of such stem cells through its 20 regional centres in the last two years.

The company, which holds an accreditation from the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) for its facility, charges around Rs 70,000 for preserving each unit of cord blood component for a period of 21 years.

"Parents banking their baby's umbilical cord blood stem cells with an AABB-accredited bank can be assured that the blood sample has been qualified, collected, tested, processed, and stored according to internationally approved and recognised standards. Moreover, this accreditation allows access to the banked cord blood from any part of the world, when needed," Arasan, CEO, Lifecell, says.

Reliance Life Sciences (RLS), which offers stem cell banking services under the "Reli Cord" brand, is also in the process of getting a similar accreditation. RLS is known to have direct presence in at least 30 locations from where cord blood stem cells are harvested.

Cryobanks International India, a joint venture of Cryobanks of the United States and India's largest franchise bottler RK Jaipuria Group, is the latest entrant having a national presence. Gurgaon-based Cryobanks, which started operations 18 months ago, has already managed to collect 1,500 units.

The company, which also operates in 30 cities, is looking at harvesting at least 5,000 units during 2008. While the prices offered by all three are the same, Cryobanks has introduced installment schemes. Sibal, for instance, opted for a five-year installment programme.

"We are in the process of signing contracts with some IT majors to introduce company-sponsored stem cell harvesting programmes for their employees. The employee with have to bear only 50 per cent of the expenses as the balance will be paid by the employer," Aasim Ghazi, head (marketing), Cryobanks, says.

Interestingly, Cryobanks has tied up with the RK Jaipuria Group and polyester major Indo Rama Group to set up a cord blood bank facility in Thailand.

The latest to foray into the sector is the Chennai-based not-for-profit organisation Jeevan Blood Bank and Research Centre. The move is significant because of the organisation's stress on public stem cell banking over "private banking" as practiced by other players.

While all three existing players have a "public banking" concept, the majority of the cases handled by them today are from the "private banking" segment.

Jeevan attempts to promote "public banking", which means harvesting and preservation of cord blood samples received through donations. While the "donor" will have no rights over the stem cells, the "recipient" will have to pay for the expenses incurred by Jeevan in preserving the cells.

"We plan to provide stem cells for free to poor patients and charge Rs one lakh from the rich as cross subsidy," P Srinivasan, chairman, Jeevan Blood Bank and Research Centre, says.

According to him, not many players will venture into "public banking" because it involves huge investment and a high maintenance cost.

Even though stem cell banking has started to pick up, the centres that could make use of these cells and offer treatments are few in number.

However, Lifecell offers solution for that problem. In November 2007, it announced the setting up of Tricell, its therapeutic unit attached to Ramachandra Medical University, Chennai.

"While Lifecell will go ahead with stem cell banking business, Tricell will offer the treatment," a company spokesperson says.

According to a government official, stem cell banking will become a public health priority only after its benefits are proved.

"Of the 75 type of diseases that have been approved for stem cell research, only a handful are a proven success. Unless it becomes a necessity for masses, government initiatives may not happen," he says.

The industry seems to be hopeful. So are the NGOs, and the patients.