Stemade, India's first and only private dental stem cell bank, is soon to foray into the Asia Pacific and the Middle East region after its successful launch in Indian market in 2009. The company which is into dental pulp stem cell banking, is already in the advanced stage of discussion with Singapore government and have initiated dialogue with the government of UAE for its probable launch in these regions this year.
With this the company will be able to introduce and launch the technology used for banking and preserving dental stem cells in these countries as well. The dental stem cells is believed to have potential to treat several diseases, such as diabetes, wound healing, Parkinson's, spinal cord injury, muscular dystrophy, osteoarthritis etc.
Stemade which was established in India in 2009, started its operation a year later, after setting up its special cryopreservation facilities at the laboratory of LifeCell International in Chennai. Since then the company has been collecting dental stem cells from the pulp of milk tooth and wisdom tooth which is frozen and stored using cryopreservation technology to maintain their viability, for retrieval of the same for stem cell therapy treatments in future.
Shailesh Gadre, managing director, Stemade informed that the company has licensed the patented technology used for collection, processing and cryopreservation of dental stem cells from a France based Institut Clinident Biopharma which is one of the three companies in the world to have developed this patented technology. Under the existing partnership, Stemade is exclusively responsible for the promotion of the technologies developed by the Institut Clinident for the purpose of stem cell banking across India and Asia.
According to Gadre, “The decision to start a unique concept like banking dental stem cells in India came after realising that there is lot of scope for treatment and research of rare diseases through this route which is yet to be explored in our country. Through this initiative we want to ensure path breaking advances in stem cell research by extracting valuable stem cells from milk teeth of children and wisdom teeth.”
Apart from these two categories, the company also collect and preserve tooth that are uprooted during medical treatment that requires temporary uprooting like for braces etc. Stem cells that are collected are preserved and stored for 20 to 21 years at a cost of Rs.1,20,000 for the whole period after which it can be further renewed again as per the clients wish.
From the time of its inception the company has grown substantially and currently collects and preserve around 60 to 70 dental stem cell samples per month from across seven cities in the country. At present the company has its presence in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune and Chandigarh through tie-ups with around 300 clinics in these area.
In the coming financial year, Stemade will be launching itself in around eight cities across the country like Ahmedabad, Cochin, Goa, Indore, Jaipur to name a few. Gadre said that in two years the company plans to have a pan India presence for greater visibility and accessibility, since stem cell therapy is the new realm of regenerative medicine for many disease that are still considered difficult to treat.