Commercialization of Stem Cell Therapeutic Research: Bridging a Big Gap

ABSTRACT Stem cell therapeutic research is passing through a transition phase between laboratory research and health industry. According to the US data registry of clinical trials, more than 4776 studies have been registered, 2882 have been completed whereas 1894 studies are in process. Surprisingly, in spite of having huge research, there are two commercialized stem cell therapeutic products in global market and these two products are also not approved by FDA. As it has been discussed in literature, stem cells have been considered as promising candidates to treat non-curable diseases like cancer etc. More than 80% successful clinical trials have been done showing no or little side effects with much better efficiency than pharmacokinetics but still stem cell research is far from being commercialized. The major reason of stem cells non-commercialization is the gap among clinicians, researchers, industry experts and policy makers. A multibillion dollar grants and a very strong communication system between doctors, researchers, industrial experts, policy makers, regulating authorities, are the pre-requisite to commercialize stem cell therapy.