I read an article written up in the Bangkok post about Thai mothers "flocking" to bank their baby's cord blood stem cells at a foreign cord blood bank due to the service being unavailable in Thailand according to Thai Health Authorities. What the article failed to mention is that a local stem cell bank - Thai StemLife- has been operating and banking for expecting parents in Thailand since July 2005.
Additionally, the article quoted a doctor who mentioned that about 10-15% of mothers birthing at a reknown Bangkok Hospital were spending VAST amounts of money to do so (1st year 50,000 baht [USD 1,320], subsequent years 6,000 baht [USD 159]).
Thai StemLife is a joint venture between StemLife in Malaysia and reputable doctors and hospitals in Thailand. The entity, which is majority Thai owned, follows StemLife Malaysia's structure in laboratory operations and some co-marketing activities to leverage on cost saving functions. Thai StemLife has its own passionate and professional management who work hard to establish committment, credibility and great service to their clients. Clients are welcome to visit and tour Thai StemLife's facilities at the Central World Tower which boasts state of the art security for client's stem cells, full power back up and modern lab facilities rivalling those internationally.
Another mistake or perhaps misquote in the article states that the storage life of the cord blood cells is 20 years according to the CEO of the foreign bank. Actually, stem cells properly cryopreserved may be stored for longer than that, almost 20 years of data is already available- so there is no reason why stem cells can't last 30, 40 or even 50 years under the right conditions.
Thai parents, you can save a bit of money and see the tank your baby's stem cells are stored in just by dropping by Thai StemLife at Central World Tower (its even next to a convenient BTS stop!). Additionally, you could ask them who they've banked stem cells for and if your baby's stem cells are next to any famous babies... :)
Check out Thai StemLife's website here.
Or contact them directly:
THAI StemLife Headquarters
Address : 23rd. floor. The Offices at Central World.
999/9 Rama I rd. , Patumwan
, Bangkok 10330
Tel : +66(0)2 613 1515-8
Fax : +66(0)2 613 1519
Email : info@thaistemlife.co.th
24 Hr Hotline : +66(0)1 3407676
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