'Chondron Has Been Safely Tested And Administered To More Than 350 Patients Over Last Five Years'

- Usha Sharma

The DCG(I) recently approved your stem cell-based therapy to treat cartilage defects. How is it different from other existing stem cell therapies in the market?

Our product is fourth generation Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation (ACI), a novel medical procedure to treat articular cartilage defects of knee and ankle joints. ACI is a minimally invasive medical procedure which involves:

a) Step one includes harvest of healthy cartilage tissue from patient’s knee joint with arthroscopy (key hole). Collected healthy cartilage tissue specimen is sent under controlled temperature at 28°C to our Cell Processing Center (Laboratory) for culturing about three to four weeks.

b) Step two includes small opening and implantation of patient’s own cultured cartilage cells (chondrocytes) onto the cartilage defect area of the same patient.

c) When cartilage cells (chondrocytes) are implanted into a cartilage defect, chondrogenesis is initiated wherein new hyaline cartilage is formed and thus joint is preserved.

How big is the Indian cartilage regeneration market and what is its growth percentage?

The Indian orthopaedic market is huge. There are about four to five lakh joint replacements, repair and reconstruction cases performed in India annually and is growing at rate of 15 per cent per annum. The orthopaedic implants segment generated the highest revenue in the global market in 2015, accounting for one-third share. The reconstructive joint replacement segment accounted for nearly two-thirds share of the global orthopaedic implants market in 2015.

Reconstructive joint replacement was the highest contributor in the orthopaedic implants market and projected to grow at a CAGR of 3.4 per cent from 2016 to 2022.