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06/11/2009
[Industry news]
Histostem provides Hematopoietic stem cell to hospital
Stem Cell Therapy International and its soon to be subsidiary, Histostem of South Korea, announced that they have supplied hematopoietic stem cells to The Queen Mary Hospital of the University of Hong Kong, China, for treatment of Leukemia patients.
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Stem Cell Therapy International and its soon to be subsidiary, Histostem of South Korea, announced that they have supplied hematopoietic stem cells to The Queen Mary Hospital of the University of Hong Kong, China, for treatment of Leukemia patients. As reported October 29, 2009 in the Korean Medical Association, Histostem has become the first Korean company in the stem cell market to provide this type of hematopoietic stem cell -- derived from umbilical cord blood -- for transplantation in non-blood related patients. This makes Korea only the sixth nation in the world to export stem cells for international research and treatment and further illustrates Histostem\\\\\\\'s role as a leader in the stem cell industry. Mr David Stark, Stem Cell Therapy\\\\\\\'s President, said, \\\\"This is just the latest success by Histostem, which in the past has also supplied stem cells for research to the University of California San Francisco, Beijing University China, and universities in Japan and Thailand.\\\\" He added, \\\\"We are increasing our vast repository and supply chain to meet existing worldwide demand for our accredited, certified cell line, and will further expand our market reach given our position as one of the world\\\\\\\'s largest cord blood repositories.\\\\" Dr. Han Hoon, President and Founder of Histostem, said, \\\\"The first Hong Kong patient will be treated for Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia. We have a significant opportunity to distribute our stem cells to patients with incurable diseases around the world and to scientifically evaluate the effectiveness of stem cell treatments.\\\\" Recently, Histostem was awarded both US and EU patents for a primary technology of extracting and cultivating mesenchymal stem cells from fresh and cryopreserved umbilical cord blood. Histostem owns and stores at its state of the art facility in Korea, over 85,000 ethically collected and well documented cord blood units. Mr Andrew Norstrud, CFO of SCII, said, \\\\"Histostem is poised to be the top enterprise in the international stem cell market, which is currently experiencing a 25 percent annual growth rate from approximately $1.8 billion in 2009 to an estimated $3.5 billion in 2012 according to Research Impact Technologies (May, 2008). We have a significant advantage with the size of our repository in tissue matching of patients and for specific research, which will allow us to eventually become a major supplier of cord blood and stem cells.\\\\" |