Thai StemLife heads for Myanmar
Operating in Thailand for almost seven years, Thai StemLife, the country's leading family stem-cell bank, is gearing up with the opening of its first overseas branch, in Myanmar.
The move is aimed at cashing in on the opening up of the neighbouring country, as well as on the implementation of the Asean Economic Community in 2015.
Nuttaporn Yupraphat, marketing manager of Thai StemLife, yesterday said the company would appoint local agents in many other Asean markets with potential, such as Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.
"We will conduct marketing campaigns more aggressively in those potential neighbouring markets where people have less access to stem-cell technology. We will make the technology more accessible to them," he said.
Thai StemLife is a joint venture between Thailand’s Superior Biotech and Malaysia-based StemLife for the provision of stem-cell collection and storage services.
The company offers a family stem-cell banking service to local customers. The deposit period is 20 years and individual customers are charged a one-time cost of about Bt85,000 each for stem cells collected from the blood in the umbilical cord, and more than Bt300,000 each for stem cells collected from the peripheral blood.
Nuttaporn said the company has about 7,000 customers depositing their children’s stem cells at the bank, while 50 of them have already withdrawn stem-cell units for bone-marrow transplantation.
"The number of clients increased significantly by 23 per cent in 2011, because of the tendency for people to be better educated about the benefits of stem cells. We expect about 1,600 customers to deposit stem cells this year, 25 per cent more than last year," he added.
At present, fewer than 1 per cent of those giving birth in Thailand have their children’s stem cells collected and deposited at stem-cell banks. This is a much lower rate than in Europe and the US, where about 3 per cent of the giving-birth population do so.
In the United Kingdom, the rate is 10 per cent, rising to as much as 30 to 50 per cent in Greece, Spain and Portugal.
Often called "master cells", stem cells stimulate the creation of other cells and are the building blocks of the body. They have the ability to renew themselves and develop into any of the 220 cell types that make up the human body.
Bone marrow was the first source of stem-cell collection, having been successfully used in a clinical setting for 55 years, said Dr Kostas I Papadopoulos, chief operations officer and executive board member of Thai StemLife.
