Stem cell therapy promising: Experts

Manipal, Jul 12: As the stem cell therapies were showing promising results for various diseases and currently used to meet unmet medical needs, the global market for such therapies was expected to be 20 billion US Dollar by 2010, Mr Ramdas M Pai, Chancellor of Manipal University, said here.

Speaking after inaugurating 'Stempeutic Manipal', a stem cell research facility here, he said yesterday that the adult stem cell therapy currently dominated the global stem cells market with a share of almost 58 per cent.

There were about 30 prominent adult stem cell companies in the world market today, a majority of them US-based, followed by EU, Israel, Thailand, Canada and Australia.

The expected current stem cell therapy market in India was approximately 540 million USD and expected to grow rapidly.

Stempeutics was setting up its third laboratory at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in August.

In the last two years, the company has expanded its operations rapidly both in research and development. Stempeutics had treated over 100 patients covering various diseases and showing good improvement in many patients, he claimed.

Dr Pai said with the goal to bring out stem cell-based drugs in the near future using mesenchymal stem cells, Stempeutics had submitted two proposals to the Drug Controller General of India and expected to bring out the innovative medicine in 2011.

Research at Stempeutics was directed towards adult and human embryonic stem cells. Researchers were planning to bring out tailor made cells for various ailments in the near future, he added.

UNI