US firm invests $16m in Indian blood cord banking and stem cell R&D project
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
US firm StemCyte (Arcadia, California and Taiwan) has invested $16m in a public and private umbilical cord blood bank to be based in the Indian city of Ahmedabad. It will be co-owned by India's Apollo Hospital group (Chennai) and Cadila Pharmaceuticals (Ahmedabad), which will hold 26% each. StemCyte will double its initial investment in StemCyte Therapeutics India following the project's implementation, which is expected to be in 9-12 months. The company, which specialises in researching the therapeutic use of umbilical cord blood (UCB) stem cells, plans to use the centre in India to study the use of UCB stem cells to treat non-haematological conditions such as diabetes, stoke and liver disease.