Like all parents, Arvind Tripathi, a schoolteacher in India’s pink city of Jaipur, wants to gift his unborn child a disease-free future. As India walks the path of cutting-edge technology in health care, the once unthinkable is actually within grasp and Tripathi is planning to achieve his dream by banking his baby’s stem cells.
He will soon join the ranks of 30,000 other parents in India who have banked the umbilical cord blood cells of their babies to give them a way to fight blood, genetic and immune system diseases for the rest of their lives.
From 2001, when the first stem cell bank in India was launched in the southern city of Chennai by Reliance Life Sciences, now part of the Reliance Group led by Mukesh Ambani, to now, benefits of the technology have percolated down to thousands of people.
Stem cells have been labeled the natural repair kit of the human body. The cells, collected from the umbilical cord blood at the time of birth, are the building blocks of our blood and immune systems and have the potential to grow into any other type of cells. They form the white cells that fight infection, red cells that carry oxygen and platelets that promote healing.
Stem cells present in bone marrow and umbilical cord can generate new cells throughout our lives. Umbilical cord blood stem cells have been used over the years in an increasing number of treatments including leukemia, malignant tumors, blood disorders and red cell disorders. In the last few years, more than 10,000 patients in over 150 countries have been treated with cord blood stem cell transplants.
Currently, research in the use of stem cells to treat more than 85 diseases is being undertaken. India is catching up fast. Though there are no estimates of the size of the business, the stem cell banking business is growing rapidly with international companies like Cryo-Save, Cryo-Cell and Cryobank opening their branches in various parts of the country.
“With a high birth rate (43 million births a year), India holds a huge market for the stem cell banking business. Though in a nascent stage, awareness about umbilical cord blood stem cell banking is catching up fast in India,” Mayur Abhaya, president and executive director of LifeCell International said.
He estimates that the business is growing at a steady pace of 25 to 30 percent per annum. Realizing the huge potential in stem cells banking business in India, European company Cryo-Save launched its operations in India last December with an investment of Rs.10 million (approx $206,000). Stem cell banking kits — which include harvesting, processing and storage of cord blood — range from about $300 to about $15,000 depending upon the kind of facilities being offered.
Though not extravagantly priced, the facility is out of reach for many Indians. To make it affordable to the average salaried person, companies are offering EMI (equated monthly instalments) payment plans. “A couple interested in storing stem cells may contact the company two months before scheduled delivery. Our counselors will approach them and guide them about the process. After 21 years, we will charge a minimal annual fee to store it for a lifetime,” explained V.R. Chandramouli, managing director of Cryo-Save, India.
Families that cannot raise the money at the time of birth can bank the cord blood in a public bank and then arrange for it to be transferred for exclusive use. Public stem cell banks operate like regular blood banks. It doesn’t cost anything to donate stem cells to a public bank and the ownership of the cells doesn’t belong to the donor. The unknown recipient pays for the stem cells when he finds suitable matching stem cells.
As the stem cell revolution gains strength in India, researchers in the country are also marching ahead for the therapy that has the potential to radically change the treatment of human disease.
With stem cell therapy clearly emerging as the treatment for the future, India has joined the rest of the world in banking on the best health-care options for humankind.