Parents in Calcutta opting to preserve the cord blood of their newborns at the upcoming storage facility of CordLife may be able to defray the expensive medical costs related to stem cell transplant, thanks to a medical insurance plan introduced in Singapore.

In an industry first for Singapore, leading cell therapy services company CyGenics Ltd has announced that its tissue banking subsidiary, CordLife, has entered into an agreement with one of the largest insurance companies in Singapore, NTUC Income.

The tie-up will provide existing and future CordLife customers with medical coverage for a stem cell transplant using cord blood, should the child or immediate family require it. Called MediCord, the exclusive policy will give CordLife customers the option of selecting insurance coverage at the point of signing up for cord blood collection, processing and storage.

CyGenics will build and operate a full umbilical cord blood tissue processing and storage facility in the city through CordLife, which collects, processes and stores adult stem cells, that may later become potential source material for life-saving treatments.

The city facility of CordLife will enable parents to preserve the cord blood of their newborns for a fee of Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000, plus an annual processing charge 15 per cent of that amount.

The insurance policy?s Plan A, to cost Singapore $100 (approximately Rs 2,700) a year, will provide for hospital, surgical and transplant costs associated with stem cell transplants, subject to a cap of S$100,000.

There is also a Plan B policy, at S$50 a year, for a coverage of S$50,000. Currently, the various available healthcare schemes and other insurance policies can defray part of the cost of such a transplant.

MediCord is the first policy to directly address and meet this growing need.

?At the moment, the policy is for customers in Singapore. At a later stage, we would be looking to extending this to our customers in other regions (including Calcutta),? said Steven Fang, Group CEO of CyGenics.

Fang was down for the official launch of the Calcutta tissue banking facility by former Prime Minister of Singapore and current senior minister Goh Chok Tong.

Worldwide, about 6,000 cord blood transplants have been carried out, with around 30 in Singapore and 200-odd in Australia. In a few countries like Japan, the number of such stem cell transplants using cord blood is already more than transplants using bone marrow.

About 75 diseases can be treated today with a stem cell transplant, though the largest use remains for different forms of leukaemia. As more treatments are discovered and cord blood becomes more widely available, the number of stem cell transplants using cord blood is expected to rise in the years ahead, according to CordLife officials.