LifeCell which had earlier this year, launched the community stem cell banking model that works on the concept of sharing of stem cells among a community of families banking with the company. It has recorded preservation of over 5,000 qualified units available for sharing with an unrelated patient within the community in just four months of its launch.
While LifeCell has surpassed the collective number of available samples across public banks in the country, this is however just the beginning, as the company expects its existing customer base to upgrade to the community banking model and grow this number 10 times larger by the end of the year. Combined with its organic growth rate it's only a matter of a few years when soon every patient will have access to a well matched cord blood units vital for a life-saving transplant.
Importantly it's not just quantity that matters but also the quality. All the units in the registry meet the current US FDA standards for listing, thereby addressing the concern that the medical fraternity world over has on the quality of samples stored in private banks. LifeCell will also undertake the high-cost, high resolution HLA typing of samples, based on next generation sequencing.
Speaking about the milestone, Mayur Abhaya, CEO, LifeCell said “The community banking model amalgamates the open access of a public bank with the availability of precious, vast yet underutilized stem cell resources of a private bank, all this at no additional cost and within the framework of a community. This has laid the ground for the creation of an unprecedented, Indian origin stem cell registry. We envision a time, in the not too distant future, when families in need of stem cells for transplants have to look no further than our registry for matching samples. Our hi-resolution sequencing of HLA typing would escalate the standards in the search of matching units for transplants. A country with such a large population deserves this and we believe our endeavour would ensure that in the coming times, patients would have no inferior access to high quality, well matched samples.”
LifeCell, established in 2004, is India’s leading provider of preventive healthcare services for family wellness, such as stem cell banking and diagnostic testing, with facilities at Chennai & Gurgaon with a network spanning over 200 cities in India and abroad.