Part 4: Bangkok Conference on Stem Cell Therapy for the Failing Heart

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
Thought I'd share with you how we've decorated the office for the season. After a short break yesterday and a hearty dinner, I'm back to the blog...

Let's plunge right into it, the review of the last talk by a Tv representative. The CEO of Tv, Dr. Valentin Fulga didn't give away too much of the company's information or much on himself, except to review the cases done to date and also that he had some experience with the FDA and planned on getting approvals relatively soon. Much of the information he had was already mentioned in other talks and he used his time to credit them for their participation and active work.

THE QUESTION

I promised an answer to DTR's question and essentially I did pose this question at the very end of the symposium to Dr. Valentin Fulga, the CEO of Tv. Firstly, I commended him on successfully having Tv's stem cell technology effectively marketed the treatment to 180 patients to date. Logistics and coordination in itself is a real feat (flying the patient to Bangkok, flying the cells to Israel and back to Bangkok- wouldn't like to know their costs..), not to mention marketing the concept to doctors, hospitals and the patients from all over America. I noted also that almost all the patients were treated in Thailand, and curiously, none in Israel. I asked him why was this not the case as most lab services are derived out of its own community's requirements initially and then to serve a greater regional need.

THE ANSWER

He sort of woffled on for a few minutes and basically said that they were in the process of doing so but didn't really answer my question. I tried to assist by asking if perhaps it was a political issue in Israel that prevented them from doing any clinical work there; and his answer to that was that if there was a political problem he certainly didn't know about it as he hadn't been there in the last 2 months. Essentially, as Dr. Itescu pointed out to me later, there may similarly be many questions and queries on the validity of the work by Tv posed by Israeli doctors which is why they've taken their work to wherever they can.

I also spoke briefly to the president of their company in Thailand and the Asian region, a young trendy thirtysomething who goes by the name of Jimmy, he eluded to a fairly complex ownership structure of subsidiary companies and I wasn't entirely sure how he ended up in this business.

Anyway, since the cells are autologous and the treatments don't seem to be more risky than standard heart bypass procedures, I wish them well in their business as they may set an interesting price and model to shape how people in the US perceive stem cell therapy... preferably, with a vacation in Amazing Thailand. :)


StemLife also offers stem cell harvesting, processing and therapeutic services with renown Malaysian doctors for patients with heart failure and ischemic heart disease. If you're interested to learn how your stem cells can help your failing heart, please feel free to call us at +603 2163 8800 during office hours or ask your doctor to contact us at info@stemlife.com.


ps. If you missed the other parts of the conference entries, click on the label for "conference"