Cryobanks targets 70 pc growth

Umbilical cord blood stem cell bank Cryobanks International India is eyeing a growth of 70 per cent in terms of customer base this fiscal.

Cyrobanks, which has about 10,000 customers, is targeting to add another 7,000 in 2009-10. “Besides, we have another 1,000 stem cells profile for general public under public stem cell banking,” Cryobanks chief executive officer CV Nerikar told Business Standard.

The company also plans to increase public banking profile to over 3,000.

“At present, lack of awareness about the huge potential to be gained from the storage of cord blood stem cells and highly technical nature of the process is the key reason for a small customer base in the country,” Nerikar added.

Cryobanks has 80 counselling centres across the county manned by bio-tech graduates, who visit households and hospitals to create awareness and market the concept.

It is a joint venture between US-based Cryobanks International and RJ Corp of India. Cryobanks, which started India operations in 2006, has a stem cell bank at Gurgaon.