Apollo, StemCyte ink pact on stem cell therapy

Chennai, Feb 21 (UNI) The Apollo Hospitals today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with StemCyte for using stem cell therapy on patients suffering from diseases such as leukemia, lymphoma, and thalassemia.

The MoU was signed by Apollo Hospitals Executive Chairman Prathap C Reddy and StemCyte Vice-President and Business Development David Carmel here.

Under the MoU, the two organisations would also work towards making Apollo a centre of excellence in Cord Blood Transplantation.

As part of the MoU, transplant physicians from Apollo would participate in the fifth Annual International Cord Blood Transplantation Symposium, sponsored by StemCyte, in Los Angeles on May 11 and 12 this year and Apollo Transplant physicians would participate in StemCyte's training fellowship in Taiwan or the US.

The training fellowships offer physicians hands-on experience in performing Cord Blood Transplant.

Apollo Physicians would also search StemCyte's inventory of over 26,000 cord blood units currently available to leading physicians in the world.

The MoU also envisages setting up labs and a Cord Blood Bank by StemCyte in India to provide stem cell therapy for people with end stage diseases.

The laboratory would be set up either in Ahmedabad or Hyderabad and the location would be finalised soon. Both the Lab and the Cord Blood Bank would be ready in about six months time, Dr Reddy told mediapersons.

The investment would be around ten million US Dollar, Mr Carmel said.

StemCyte, a leading, global Umbilical Cord Blood (UCB) stem cell transplantation and therapeutic products company, has UCB storage facilities in both California and Taiwan.

Dr Reddy said Apollo and StemCyte would continue to discuss more areas of collaboration to help bring in the critical resource of cord blood stem cells which are currently unavailable in India.

''We look forward to building a world class cord blood bank in India to meet the needs of individuals suffering from over 70 diseases including leukemia, thalassemia and sickle cell disease,'' Mr Carmel said.

UNI