The Hindu Business Line : Manipal claims stem cells breakthrough for Parkinson's

Manipal working on stem cell therapies for cardio-vascular and other diseases.
To invest Rs 25 crore for equipment, training manpower in regenerative medicine.
Stem cell therapy potential in India put at $100 m

Bangalore April 5 Manipal Hospital on Wednesday claimed a breakthrough in treating Parkinson's disease with autologous stem cells drawn from the patient's bone marrow.

It would extend the stem cell therapy to more medical challenges such as spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis through an integrated department of stem cells, hospital officials told a news conference.

The hospital presented Mr Andrew Kisana, 58, a US-based former structural engineer progressively debilitated by the disease for 15 years. When he arrived in Bangalore for treatment in January 2006, he could barely walk, talk or control normal bodily motions, though mentally normal. The disease was spreading despite expensive medication, brain surgery and electronic brain implants.

A composed Mr Kisana walked in slowly and keyed in his verdict: "This treatment hits the root cause of the disease... like no other therapy."

Mr Kisana's speech is slurred and the treatment, started in February 2006, would go on for a couple of years, said Dr N.K. Venkataramana, Director of Manipal Institute for Neurological Disorders, who is treating him. A younger patient with a spinal cord injury has also shown good results.

Kolkata conference

Manipal plans to formally present its successes at a neurological conference in Kolkata in October. "We are not making tall claims but we have had some success with two untreatable problems," Dr Venkararamana said. "We need to observe the long-term clinical effects in a large number of patients."

The superspecialty hospital which forayed into stem cells with Stempeutics Research Pvt Ltd four years back is working at affordable stem cell therapies for cardio-vascular problems and diseases affecting brain, liver, kidney, bone and spinal, said Mr R. Basil, MD & CEO of Manipal Health Systems, and Dr Nagendra Swamy, Group Director-Medical Services.

The hospital would invest the remaining Rs 25 crore of the Rs 45-crore stem cell budget in equipment, building manpower and post-graduate training in regenerative medicine, Mr Basil said.

Stem cell market

The global stem cell therapy potential is put at $20 billion, some $100 million of it in India alone. Dr Satish Totey, CSO, Stempeutics, said Manipal had enrolled 20 patients for autologous (own-cell) research and expected to begin human clinical trials for allogenic (or cells from others) therapy in May or June. India, he said, is uniquely poised to be the hub of stem cell research, with scores of MNCs seeking regulatory approval to do trials.

Mr Kisana's stem cell infusions each cost Rs 75,000. The same would cost $75,000-90,000 (Rs 30-40 lakh) in the West. According to the officials, the conventional treatment of Parkinson's disease is medically challenging and can cripple the patient financially too by several lakhs of rupees each for dopamine, surgery or implants.

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