India's first off-the-shelf cell therapy treatment for knee osteoarthritis

One injection will cost Rs 1.25 lakh with effects lasting for two years or more

Alkem Laboratories (Alkem) and Stempeutics, a Bengaluru-based biotechnology company, are launching the first ‘off-the-shelf’ stem cell therapy - StemOne - for treating patients with osteoarthritis (OA).

Priced at Rs 1.25 lakh for a single injection, the effects can last up to two years or more in a patient progressively seeing wear and tear of the cartilage in the knee.

Alkem and Stempeutics claimed this is the first ‘allogeneic cell therapy’ product to be approved for commercial use in knee OA.

Cell therapies are typically autologous. The stem cells come from the same person who gets the transplant - meaning the patient is his/her