Widecells Group PLC (LON:WDC) chief executive Joao Andrade tells Proactive Investors he expects a licence to store and process umbilical cord blood from the UK Human Tissue Authority ‘imminently’.
In a walk and talk tour, Andrade also gives an overview of the company’s new state-of-the art laboratory and stem cell storage facilities at the University of Manchester Innovations Centre.
The company's Institute of Stem Cell Technology (ISCT) is prepped and ready to start storing stem cells from UK families, he said, and will start immediately when the licence comes through.
WATCH: WideCells opens up its Manchester HQ and laboratory to Proactive Investors
Stem cells from the umbilical cord might eventually be used to treat 82 blood-borne diseases, including leukaemia and lymphoma.
Storage will be another revenue stream for the company, which recently began to market its Cellplan insurance product in the UK in conjunction with tissue bank Biovault.
Cellplan is designed to help people afford the cost of stem cell treatments, up to US$300,000 currently, and more launches in other countries are planned by the end of the year, Andrade tells Proactive.
WideCells is already deriving revenues from its research work in the laboratory through a deal with Qigenix, a California-based company.
Laser development
Dr Peter Hollands, WideCells’ chief scientific officer, explains it is testing a new medical laser to activate stem cells.
The Lab is also working on a synthetic bone graft INDUS, which is being marketed to dentists to use in implants.
ISCT can store 50,000- 60,000 donor cells currently but has the capacity to increase this to 250,000, says Hollands.
READ: WideCells interims chart period of significant progress
Already described as the world’s 21st most disruptive new company in one recent survey, Andrade says WideCells’s approach is ‘transversal’.
“Cord banks, patients, treatment centres and research companies all benefit as we are revolutionising the healthcare industry globally.”