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Our Bureau

Independent regulator for stem cells is also being considered

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Bangalore Jan. 29 A five-city public debate on guidelines for stem cell-based therapies and research activities will be kicked off shortly, prior to submitting the existing draft for parliamentary approval in the coming months, according to Dr D. Balasubramanian, Head of the stem cell task force and President of the recently formed Stem Cell Research Foundation of India.

An independent regulator for stem cells is also being considered on the lines of the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, he said.

Indian Council of Medical Research and the Department of Biotechnology have put together the tentative guidelines being applied now. The plan is to have the formal guidelines ready for adoption by June this year, Dr Balasubramanian said. The debate for scientific feedback will be held in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai or Pune.

MULTI-CENTRE TRIALS

Currently, 15 centres in the country, including private sector players like Manipal Health Systems and Reliance Life Sciences, are involved in different kinds of stem cell research. A formal set of norms will standardise and streamline these activities, said Dr Balasubramanian, who is the Director of Research, L.V.Prasad Eye Institute at Hyderabad, and Dr Alok Srivastava, Project Director, Centre for Stem Cell Research, Vellore, earlier told a news conference here on Monday. They were speaking at the opening of the first international scientific meet on stem cells organised by SCRFI.

The Vellore centre at the Christian Medical College has just been sanctioned the first DBT grant of Rs 20-25 crore. It will be the nodal centre to monitor the first multi-centre trials for myocardial infarction using umbilical cord blood stem cells that are to begin soon, Dr Srivastava told Business Line.

The trials, the first under DBT vigil, will be conducted at CMC, two army hospitals, PGI Chandigarh, and the Sanjay Gandhi PG Institute, Lucknow, and will be the largest, with a patient base of 300, Dr Srivastava said.

Qualified personnel

According to them, development of qualified personnel for stem cell related activities was another area of concern.

Dr Satish Totey, Director of Manipal institute of Regenerative Medicine and Secretary of SCRFI, said stem cells have been used to restore cases of spinal cord injury, myocardial infarction (heart attack), leg ischemia, diabetes, Parkinson's disease and cure blindness.

Still in infancy, the domestic market is estimated at $540 million (around Rs 2430 crore) and growing at 15 per cent yearly. India and China are believed to become key players.

A Frost & Sullivan study puts the global market for stem cell therapies at $20 billion by 2010, with adult stem cell therapy dominating over embryonic and cord blood cells. Over 350 scientists from public and private stem cell labs and pharma industry are attending the four-day conference.

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