Qatar’s Virgin Health Bank has an ambitious plan that could shape the future of the Arab world.

Deep in the heart of the stunning Qatar Science and Technology Park on the outskirts of Doha, a lab and cryogenic storage facility is being constructed that has the potential to address many of the most urgent health concerns in the Arab world.

The Virgin Health Bank in Qatar is a rare phenomenon in business – a company with a vision beyond the bottom line.

In 2009 Virgin Health Bank (VHB) moved its international headquarters to the Qatari capital, bringing with it the infinite possibilities of cord blood stem cell storage and research as well as a crucial flagship for the country’s quest for a ‘knowledge-based economy’.

VHB’s Qatar storage facility and lab will open in January 2011, allowing the company to store samples collected from its clients in Qatar and the region.

This is one of the ‘charitable’ ventures within the empire of entrepreneur and billionaire Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. The CEO became interested in the cord blood issue after learning that many groups living in the UK, particularly among ethnic minorities and mixed race families, were experiencing a shortage in cord blood.

“As the building blocks of life, stem cells have the capacity to treat a wide range of diseases without the invasiveness and risks of bone marrow transplantation, and research into the application of therapeutic stem cell technology is among the most active areas of medical research today,” says VHB CEO Dr. Rajan Jethwa.

It is the potential stem cell storage and therapies have for health issues prevalent in the Arab world, including diabetes, that is garnering the most attention.

“Stem cell therapy is currently being used to treat diseases including sickle cell anaemia and thalassemia, both particularly prevalent in the Middle East and within Arab families,” explains Dr. Jethwa.

“Globally there are more than 15 million registered bone marrow stem cell donors and cord blood units potentially available to provide cells for use in transplants. But within the Gulf region the corresponding number (was) only 45 at last count.

“And these may be Western expatriates who have relocated to the area and whose cells would therefore be incompatible with the needs of local populations because of tissue typing issues. There is therefore a lack of appropriately matched stem cell units available to Arab communities”.

Moving the bank to Qatar and specifically targeting Arab families therefore has benefits beyond those of solving health problems within families. VHB this year signed a deal with the Hamad Medical Corporation, Qatar’s public health provider, to offer its services to the families of the 12,000 babies delivered in their hospitals each year.

VHB is a private banking facility, charging a one-off fee for collection and storage of umbilical stem cells for up to 20 years, but plans are being discussed for the region’s first public cord blood banking facility which would benefit all across the GCC area and beyond.

Discussions are also under way to expand VHB’s services to other countries in the Gulf region. The public-private bank will store a portion of the child’s cells for the family’s use and release the rest, with parental permission, into the national public bank for use in the wider patient community in the Middle East, increasing the ‘pool’ of stem cells available for matching and transplantation.

“The possibilities of this kind of co-operation are quite extraordinary,” says Dr. Jethwa. Unusually and critically, VHB has backing from the highest levels of Qatari society and, most importantly, from the influential religious community. In 2010 Sheikh Dr. Ali Al Qaradaghi, a researcher and professor in the Faculty of Shariah at Qatar University, confirmed that it is permissible in Islam to donate, bank, and use stem cells whether taken from adults, embryos, or animals, to treat diseases.

“Education and the creation of public awareness are essential steps to realising the potential of stem cells to positively contribute to the health of Qatar’s population,” says Dr. Jethwa.

While a business, VHB’s long-term vision fits in with that of Qatar’s aim to move away from its dependence on oil and gas revenues and develop a ‘knowledge-based economy’.

VHB is based at the Qatar Science and Technology Park, which itself is forming part of a ‘Research and Development’ hub in the Gulf state. Next door is the state-of-the-art Sidra medical research complex, due for completion sometime in 2012. Also in the Education City campus is the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, which has its own medical research capabilities.

“What is happening in Qatar at the moment is exciting not just for Qatar but for the Arab world. Our vision is to exploit Virgin Health Bank’s knowledge of cord blood stem cell processing and storage, benefit from the global reach of the Virgin brand, and to make Qatar one of the world’s leading centres for cord blood banking."

PRECIOUS CARGO

Until the processing and storage facility are fully functioning in 2011, Qatar Airways has been playing an integral role in the work of Virgin Health Bank.

Blood samples from the mother as well as the actual cord blood are flown to the UK for testing and processing after they have been collected.

It’s crucial that the cord blood is handled appropriately on its journey to the processing and storage centre, and both speed and security are vital to ensure that the precious stem cells are processed and stored before they deteriorate.

Once collected, the blood samples are packed into specially developed transit packaging and securely flown to the UK where they are then taken to the processing and storage facility in Plymouth.

“From collection to storage it takes no more than 48 hours,” says Dr. Jethwa.