The Indian Express | 12 May 2018.
NEW DELHI: The trend of preserving a newborn baby’s umbilical cord for possible therapeutic use in future is catching up among new-age parents.The process comes at a hefty price and the facilities offering the service are aggressively pushing parents to opt for it.
Many have also roped in celebrities like Aishwarya Rai and Shilpa Shetty as brand ambassadors. But commercial banking of umbilical cord blood, which promises to preserve a newborn’s cord by freezing and storing it for stem cell therapy, has risen as a largely unregulated industry, running almost parallel to childbirth in big hospitals in India.
The Indian Council of Medical Research, under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, after formulating guidelines for stem cell research and therapy last year, has now initiated a process to lay down norms for cord blood banking.ICMR authorities said the need to come up with the norms was felt because companies offering the facility for a fee ranging from Rs 30,000-Rs 1.5 lakh claim it can be used to treat conditions ranging from thalassaemia to aggressive forms of cancer, even though there is not enough scientific evidence to prove that.
“Our standards will make specifications for quality assurance and quality control at each step and will provide detailed guidance document to be followed by cord blood banks,” Geeta Jotwani, senior scientist and deputy director general, ICMR said.A paediatrician at AIIMS, Delhi, pointed out that stem cell transplantation for treatment is limited to hereditary or genetic conditions, specifically blood disorders. But in that case umbilical cord blood cannot be used to save the donor since it will have the same genetic abnormalities.
Expecting mothers, however, are routinely pestered to opt for the service. “I was inundated with these offers during my visit to the gynaecologist,” said Eshna Verma of Bengaluru, who had a baby last year. “I talked to many people and realised it was not worth it. But I know of many new parents who get enticed by such offers.”
Public health researchers, too, expressed concern that the service is virtually being forced on new parents who can pay by playing on their fears. Companies, on their part, said they adhere to existing guidelines. “Stem cell transplants have now gone beyond the scope of treating just blood and immune conditions. In many countries globally, they’re being approved for regeneration of tissues. Even in India few companies have got market approval for these novel stem cell based therapeutics,” said Mayur Abhaya, MD and CEO of Chennai-based LifeCell that claims to have about 3 lakh cord blood samples preserved.
