Public stem cell bank receives Rs 9 crore grant

CHENNAI: The state government announced a grant of Rs 9 crore to Chennai's public cord blood bank on Tuesday.

The fund will be issued over three years to Jeevan Blood Bank and Research Centre to help the bank host a collection of 3,000 cord blood donations from the state, Jeevan co-founder Dr P Srinivasan said in a statement.

At present, the bank has an inventory of 700 cord blood units. Public stem cell banks store stem cells drawn from cord blood donated by women during child birth, and sell them to patients for a price.

Stem cell transplant is the only hope for patients with blood disorders, cancers and thalassemia. But, only two of the more than 1,000 patients who requested for stem cells from the public bank have got treatment in the past four years.

In order to get a transplant, the human leucocyte antigen (HLA) of the donor and the recipient should match. However, the chances of an Indian finding a match is less than 10 per cent as the country lacks an inventory. Even if a match is found, the patient has to pay around Rs 20 lakh to import the blood type.

But with the help of the grant, Jeevan stem cells will be available for free to patients from the state, according to Dr Srinivasan.

"This is a long awaited major boost to public cord blood banking in India. I am hopeful that other states will find some funding in the 12th plan allocation for health care and promote cord blood banking in their states," he said.

This grant is expected to encourage other states to join in creating a large national inventory, which will help more Indians find a match and a hope for cure, said Dr Srinivasan.

The public cord blood bank was set up in 2008 by Jeevan Blood Bank and Research Centre. Jeevan signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with IIT Madras in March for research and development in stem cell biology.