For Avneet Kaur, storing her baby’s cord blood after delivery was mandatory as both she and her husband have beta thalassaemia traits. So even if the storage cost was a whopping Rs 75,000, for Kaur it was a kind of ‘biological insurance’ for her child for the next 21 years.

Cord blood is collected from the umbilical cord shortly after a baby’s birth and has the potential to treat a variety of medical conditions ranging from leukemia to metabolic disorders to cerebral palsy. Like Kaur, a growing number of women in the city have started storing their baby’s cord blood at the several private stem cell banks and collection centres that have sprung up in the last three years.

However, this move comes at a cost and at the moment there are no government rules or guidelines to regulate the functioning of the private stem cell banks and collection centres in the city.

Pune’s local Stem One biologicals has been conducting the process since last four years along with four other collection centres of companies like Life Cell, Cryobank, Cryosave and Reliance. The private cord banks charge a fee that ranges from Rs 50,000 onwards to store a baby’s cord blood for possible future use.

Agreeing that collections have been steadily rising, Chaitanya Purandare, Managing Director of Stem One biologicals, says, “While cord blood banking business did start as a commercial venture, it is not a money making racket,” he said. Firdaus Roowalla, area sales manager for Cryo Save collection centre too reiterates that in one year alone they have collected cord blood from 100 women. “We charge Rs 75,000 for 21 years,” says Roowalla. The collection facility of Life Cell in Pune has stored cord blood of 1,500 children, says Mayur Abhaya of Life Cell. The charge is Rs 45,000 for the first year and then Rs 3,500 every year thereafter.

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