After failing to find a donor for a life-saving bone marrow transplant
both in the US and India, Nalini Ambady, the first Indian American woman
to teach psychology at Harvard and Stanford universities, died of
leukemia last month.But she is not the only one. In India, the situation is very grim. According to experts, over 70 percent of patients in need of a stem cell
transplant are unable to find a match due to lack of bone marrow
donors. Also, the inventory of donated umbilical cord blood units is
negligible. Realising the need for a repository, LifeCell - India's first stem cell
banking company - has planned to set up the country's largest public
cord blood bank. The Chennai-based company plans to have an inventory of
10,000 units that can be used for treatment during serious medical
conditions. "The need for a public repository of donor stem cells is being felt
sharply with the sad demise of Dr. Nalini Ambady as she could not find a
bone marrow match either in the US or India despite a massive online
campaign run by her family and friends," Mayur Abhaya, managing director
and head of LifeCell, told IANS. The company plans to spend Rs.25 crore/Rs 250 million for establishing
the bank in Chennai in the next five years. At the moment, India has 15
private cord blood stem cell banks. But the need is growing day by day. This was specially felt in the Nalini Ambady case. Despite searching for
a match in the US and India, she could not find anything that could
help her. On the need for an extensive repository, Abhaya said: "Considering the
huge ethnic diversity in the country many more units would be required
to give patients a reasonable chance of finding a match." The umbilical cord blood is a rich source of stem cells that have the
potential to treat over 80 medical conditions today such as thalassemia
(rare blood disorder), leukemia (blood cancer), myeloma (a type of bone
marrow cancer), lymphoma (type of blood cancer) and many such critical
diseases. Stem cells are regenerative cells that can be transplanted to
replace damaged cells in the body. "The idea is to improve the stem cell asset base in the country to make
the benefits available to our people. As of now the umbilical cord blood
is wasted post-delivery," he said. "We have tied up with over 100 large public health institutions for
collection of around 100,000 cord blood samples. Generally 1 in 10
samples are of storing quality; so by the end we will have a repository
of 10,000 units," said Abhaya. He said consent of the parent will be taken before releasing the unit to a needy patient. "We have decided to keep a cost of Rs. 500,000 (over $8,300) to source a
unit of cord blood as compared to $40,000-50,000 (Rs. 25 lakh) in the
US. In Europe, it costs the equivalent of Rs.21 lakh," he said. "In the recent years a large number of umbilical cord blood banks have
been created worldwide to provide more access to these precious stem
cells. "In 2005 there were less than 25 banks worldwide and now there are over
500 banks around the world with an umbilical cord blood bank now
established in almost every major country," he said. Umbilical cord blood banking is today regarded as an essential service
globally wherein the precious stem cells are collected from the
umbilical cord blood and preserved in minus 190 degree Celsius in order
to maintain its utility for decades. Source: IANS.
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