International Stemcell Services Limited (ISSL) which is engaged in stem cell clinical application and banking services is planning an investment to the tune of Rs 50 crore. The funds will be utilized to establish dedicated stem cell speciality hospitals in major cities and open up Departments of Regenerative Medicine in existing hospitals.

The company would chip in a portion of the funds from its internal accruals and the remaining will be raised through financial institutions. Presently, ISSL has a opened a facility at the St Theresa’s Hospital, Bangalore which is equipped with a Philips endura C-arm for transplantation of stem cells. Its Mumbai centre is a class 10,000 cGMP facility, which caters to the western parts of the country.

Stem cell therapy should be an in-built approach for all medical practitioners practicing conventional means of medicine. The company has developed clinical protocols for a range of disease conditions treatable by adult stem cells. It is carried out the highest number of human studies using adult stem cells adhering to Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and approved by Institutional Committee for Stem Cell Research and Therapy (ICSCRT).

“In fact, ISSL is the first company to put together a comprehensive tri-modality treatment for clinical conditions which could benefit with adult stem cell therapy that includes harvesting of bone marrow/lipoaspirates, enrichment of stem cells and transplantation of cells. These are trials in Chronic Liver Disease, Beurger’s Diseases and Spinal Cord Injury. Presently ongoing are Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), Type I and Type II diabetes,” Dr Gururaj A Rao, managing director, International Stemcell Services Limited told Pharmabiz over email.

Right now the company is setting up the first dedicated stem cell hospital in Bangalore which will be equipped with an operation theatre to offer adult stem cell therapy. The follow ups for the trial are conducted as per the protocol and published in a peer reviewed journal, he added.

Stem cell applications should be based on strong academic rationalization, for a given therapy. Each clinical condition has to be studied, and the relevant approaches have to be undertaken to get the right outcomes. It is disturbing to find that there is a lot of discrepancy where the field of stem cell therapy is concerned. Patients are recruited without informing the probable outcomes of the therapy. ICMR should call on key players in the stem cell therapy area to participate in the proceedings of the National Apex Committee (NAC). Government support for clinical trials must be made available to private players in a transparent manner so that their interests are well protected, said Dr Rao.

There is a visible change in the acceptance of stem cell therapy in mainstream medicine and doctors are accepting it as a preferred mode of therapy. As the therapy is “non invasive”, it has a high level of acceptance in the patient population. It is very important that clinicians know when to prescribe a stem cell therapy regimen for a given clinical condition .This is where a separate department of regenerative medicine within a hospital is required. Doctors need to work closely with companies like ISSL to provide better treatment options to their patients, he said.

There is also issue of paucity of trained experts in this field leads to untrained personnel engaging in stem cell therapy, with serious repercussions. There must be a proven platform where personnel required in this stream are trained, to ensure maintenance of quality. ISSL also has a R&D and training facility, we are able to absorb them as required, said Dr Rao.