Stemade Biotech Pvt. Ltd, India's first private dental stem cell bank, is making headway to expand into 50 cities from the current seven locations in the country including New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru over the next 12-18 months. The company, engaged in storing dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs), which are a potent source of mesenchymal or tissue-related stem cells, sees a positive interest among the dental experts on its potential to treat many disease conditions.

DSPCs are extract from primary or milk teeth of children and wisdom teeth stored in a special cryogenic storage facility. These mesenchymal cells are used to treat brain related disorders like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's besides corneal reconstruction, liver cirrhosis, pancreas for diabetes control, bone fractures- reconstruction, and cartilage repair in osteoarthritis.

The umbilical cord blood provides haematopoietic blood-related stem cells that can treat only blood related disorders such as leukaemia etc. “Therefore, those who have missed the opportunity to store umbilical cord blood during delivery, can now opt for DPSC. In fact, dental stem cell banks can function as a 'biological insurance' for people against some dreaded diseases. We therefore want to reach as many households as possible. With a visible change in the mindsets of patients and physicians to opt for regenerative medicine or stem cells, we aim to bank approximately 100,000 samples over the next two years in India,” Shailesh Gadre, MD and CEO, Stemade told Pharmabiz.

While funding details were not disclosed for the expansion, the Stemade chief said, “We would look at raising some money as we expand to new markets in Asia & Middle East to set up facilities.”

From doctor education to direct to customer awareness programs, there is a significant scope for DPSC banking. We are purely into DPSC banking and not into clinical applications. While we do not undertake such projects directly, we are evaluating certain projects that we can support in the future, he added.

According to the GBI report, Indian stem cell market is expected to reach $600 million by 2017. Dental stem cells, being the most potent source, will be poised to acquire a large share of this market.

Guidelines for dental stem cells or mescenchymal stem cells are the same as general tissue banking. There are many areas that are being researched using mescenchymal stem cells like bone, cartilage, liver, spinal cord, eye care, skin among others which are in various stages of clinical trials. “We are investing into initiatives to raise awareness on our facilities in India and look forward to results of research to be faster too. Further, Stemade is associated with over 3,000 dentists who are convinced on the usefulness of DSPC via our continuing medical education (CME) programmes and sharing the clinical-scientific documents,” said Gadre.