LifeCell International has achieved quite a few milestones in the last few years and is today the most preferred stem cell bank in India as per a Nielsen survey, with 100 centres across India. Mayur Abhaya, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, LifeCell International reveals more in an interview with Shalini Gupta
How has the previous year been for Lifecell? What have been the major accomplishments?
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| Mayur Abhaya |
The year 2012 has been another remarkable year of progress. Within this year we launched Express Shipment Service, by which we can offer industry’s leading shipment time for transport of stem cells and that too in a highly secure manner. This was launched in collaboration with Sequel Logistics. We made a foray in newborn screening with our BabyShield Newborn Screening Service. It is the world’s most advanced newborn service whereby over 100 metabolic conditions can be screened at birth and that too in a completely non-invasive manner. It is to be noted that even the US mandatory panel is only for 54 conditions and is not painless. December saw us introduce India’s first dual storage service launch of our new storage facility at Manesar, Gurgaon, that allows stem cells to be stored at two geographically distant locations.
How huge is the global market for stem cell banking? What is the situation in India?
The global stem cell banking market is about $500 million. India is a nascent market at less than 10 per cent of this at Rs 200 crores. As compared to Singapore which ranks highest with a penetration rate at 250/1000 children, in India it remains at 2/1000. This also indicates there is a huge unmet clinical need in India that needs to be addressed. The next three to five years would see stem cell banking penetration rise above one per cent and that would be driven by increasing awareness, reach and affordability.
Japan, China and Korea lead the stem cell banking market in Asia. What are the lessons for India from these countries?
Enabling research environment along with supportive regulatory policy have made these countries leaders in stem cell technology. Last year’s Nobel Prize winner in Medicine was from Japan; the world’s first allogeneic stem cell product approval was from Korean FDA. Autologous cancer vaccine treatment is considered as practice of medicine in Japan and therefore out of regulatory approval purview. The lessons to be learnt are: Don’t always be conservative. Being a follower can reduce failure risks but also delays availability and access to critical medical technologies. Also, regulatory bodies need be more enablement and funds to put a full-time team on this.
What is Lifecell’s reach and share in the Indian market?
We have a market share of 45-50 per cent and take pride in being market leaders as far as distribution and reach is concerned. We are looking at expanding around the Indian geography in markets such as Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the next six months. We also have a presence in the Middle East but with Government restrictions around opening of private stem cell banks, the reach has not been that much. We have 60,000 clients in cord blood banking and an equal number in tissue banking. More than 80 per cent of our revenues come from cord blood banking. Menstrual blood banking is an emerging stream for us with 14,000 clients as of now.
What is being done to increase the awareness levels about stem cell banking?
So far for marketing, we have been looking at a medical approach wherein the concept is being managed through hospitals. Doctors today are aware of stem cell banking and 99 per cent recommend it to their patients. There is also a growing awareness among parents and in larger hospitals it is through word of mouth. We also run hospital awareness patient programmes. At the consumer level, we are conducting programmes at the college level in Delhi and Chennai, to educate young women about menstrual blood banking and engage them as change agents to take charge of their future. This would include showcasing our labs in both the cities to them as a part of a tour so that they can have the trust to bank with us.
Recently the Competition Commision of India has been probing unfair practices in stem cell banking. What are your views on it?
The matter relates to practices of hospitals at large. While the case is specific to provision of stem cell services may be the CCI should take a larger view on the entire gamut of healthcare services distributed by hospitals such as diagnostics, medical devices, medicines, etc. The consumer is medically more aware than ever before and will want to participate in choosing the best medical options available.
What are your plans to foray into the stem cell therapy space?
Stem cell therapy is mostly still limited to bone marrow and cord blood transplantation. Globally, while there is a lot in the pipeline, it is still a few years away from marketplace. Due to lack of regulatory policy and policing, emerging stem cell therapies are at the moment being provided mostly by the unorganised sector. Dendritic vaccines form the basis of the newest modality of cancer treatment i.e, immunotherapy which won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Medicine. It was also the basis for a product launch in the US for treatment of prostrate cancer. Data from emerging clinical trials shows unmatched clinical benefits and therefore looks promising. LifeCell has initiated development of cancer vaccines but is still years away from launch as the clinical development phase is yet to be initiated.
India represents a huge market for newborn screening, which remains largely a public health initiative, often mandatory in other countries. Only two Indian states, however, have launched this initiative. How do you see the future?
India has the highest infant deaths worldwide with less than one in 1,000 newborn screened at birth, although its mandatory in over 60 countries for all newborns. Countries that have mandated newborn screening through public programmes have achieved first an infant mortality ratio of 10, so such a milestone is essential before countrywide adoption of newborn screening. In India, only Goa and Kerala have achieved this and therefore have embarked upon it. It is only natural that other states will look at this closely for their healthcare initiatives especially now that higher allocations are being committed for healthcare in next five year plans. We see BabyShield as an innovative solution not just for India but the world. It helps us to secure future health of newborns through preventive approaches – a space where we have market leadership, and also an area with significant unmet needs.
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