Cryo-Save to create cell lines at B'lore centre

Eyes 25% market share in India by 2010

Cryo-Save India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Belgium-based stem cell storage bank Cryo-Save Group, is planning to develop cell lines (cells grown in tissue culture) at its stem cell banking facility in Bangalore, according to its managing director VR Chandramouli.

“Our parent company has technology for creating 16 cell lines, including liver, heart and pancreas. Now we are planning to develop them at our Bangalore facility. At present, the Bangalore centre is involved only in cell differentiation. We expect the research and development (R&D) work on the cell lines to start by mid-2010,” he told Business Standard.

Cryo-Save Group, a company listed on the London Stock Exchange, set up its India operations in December 2008. Its Bangalore centre, built at a cost of 2 million euro (about Rs 14 crore), has the capacity to store 300,000 samples.

Chandramouli said the company was looking at bringing stem cell therapies to India, which at present are in the R&D stage.

“We have already tied up with the University of Florida for stem cell therapy for Type-I diabetics and with the University of Berlin for valve dysfunction in heart. The R&D on these therapies may take four years from now and we will launch them in India much before the other third-world countries adopt them,” he said.

Cryo-Save India has arrangements with 150 hospitals for collection of cord blood, and it is on the verge of signing up six more hospitals for carrying out stem cell therapy trials, he added.

Stating that about 25 million child births happen in India alone each year, an opportunity which companies like Cryo-Save cannot miss, Chandramouli said the company was asking its network hospitals to create awareness among pregnant women to save their baby’s umbilical cords for stem cell research that can be used in curing medical problems of the entire family.

“At present, Cryo-Save enjoys a 12 per cent share of the stem cell industry in India, which is pegged at Rs 120 crore. Our objective is to sustain this and get into the leadership position with a 25 per cent market share by 2010 or mid of 2011,” Chandramouli said.