Bio-insurance: Save your baby's stem cells!

Stem cells, master cells of the human body that are at the cutting edge of medical treatment, can now be banked like savings for a rainy day.

A 16,000 sq ft lab at Keelakotaiyur near Chennai has just been set up to store stem cells taken from the blood in a baby's umbilical cord.

Asia Cryo-Cell, the company that built the cord blood stem cell bank, charges parents Rs 59,900 to store a newborn's stem cells for 21 years. It is a form of 'bio-insurance,' said company executives.

• Stem cell bank in India

S Abhaya Kumar, CEO, Asia Cryo-Cell, said the lab, LifeCell, was built at a cost of Rs 12 crore (Rs 1120 million) to conform to United States' regulatory specifications. The technical help to build the lab came from Cryo-Cell International of the US, a pioneer in the field of storing cord blood stem cells.

Cord blood stem cells, which were first used in a transplant in France in 1988, are preserved in cryo-vials at -195 degrees centigrade. The donor and the immediate family can access the cells anytime.

Asia Cry-Cell officials said until the donor came of legal age, the donor's parents would have control over stem cells. If the cells needed to be preserved beyond 21 years, the donor would have pay again, said Saranya Nandakumar, medical director at Asia Cryo-Cell.

Asia Cryo-Cell executives said the stem cell bank regulations in India were similar to the rules that blood banks followed. They added that there had been about 25 'reported' cases of transplants using cord blood stem cells.

The company's literature on the subject said cord blood stem cells were easier to collect than an alternative source such as the bone marrow of adults.

In comparison, cord blood stem cells are also unexposed to disease. Also, cord blood does not present an ethical dilemma as the umbilical cord has always been discarded as bio-medical waste.

Abhaya Kumar said the business model was built on having franchisees. He said by the end of the year about 20 franchisees across the country would be in place.

The franchisees would collect cord blood stem cells, and send them to LifeCell for preservation. Asia Cryo-Cell would soon add stem cell research to its functions, said Abhaya Kumar.

Gerald Maass, executive vice-president, Cryo-Cell International, said an increasing number of parents had begun to opt for preserving a child's cord blood stem cells. He said that cord blood stem cell participation in the US stood at about 5 per cent of the births, and 15 companies were engaged in the preservation business.

Asia Cryo-Cell's main promoters are Abhaya Kumar, who is also the joint managing director of Shasun Chemicals, and R Thyagarajan, chairman of the Shriram group.