$16-million blood bank to be set up in Ahmedabad

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Chennai, Mar 1 : Chennai-based Apollo Hospitals and Cadila Pharmaceuticals have entered into an agreement with StemCyte, Inc, the US-based world leading stem cell transplantation and therapeutics comany, to set up a public and private umbilical cord blood (UCB) bank at Ahmedabad with an estimated investment of $16 million. Apollo Hospitals and Cadila will together hold 26% while StemCyte will hold the remaining 74%, said Preetha Reddy, managing director, Apollo Hospitals group.

Speaking to the FE here on Saturday, she said: “We have plan to double the investment once the facility goes on stream in the next 9 to 12 months.” The new entity will be named after StemCyte Therepeutics India Private Limited and will establish a state-of-the-art facility which will process and store umbilical cord blood units that will be used to treat patients throughout the world, she added.

StemCyte Therepeutics India will build an inventory of 25,000 UCB units so that patients from India and around the world can access the life-saving therapies that use UCB stem cells. In addition, StemCyte India will establish a research institute to investigate the use of UCB stem cells for non-hematological diseases such as diabetes, stroke, liver and other diseases, said Kenneth J Giacin, chairman, president and CEO of StemCyte of the United States.

“We have been supplying over 32 countries and have two plants in the US and Taiwan. Ahmedabad is the third such plant to be established and will have all the facilities that of the other two plants,” he said. “We expect to commence the operation in the next months and the facility will also cater to the global markets,” he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Indravadan A Modi, chairman of Cadila Pharmaceuticals, said: “It has been our endeavour to bring the best to India in the realm of life-care and critical care. Research in stem cells and related areas is going to have a fast reaching impact on patient care in the future. So we, joined forces with Apollo Hospitals and StemCyte.”