November 8, 2007 - SHENZHEN, China – Beike Biotechnology, the leader in stem cell applications for medical treatment, has announced that it has formally established a world-class laboratory facility for the research of cell reprogramming and gene engineering, through a joint agreement with the Shenzhen Graduate School of China’s renowned Tsinghua University. The lab will conduct research on stem cells, the nuclear transfer and reprogramming of cells, monoclonal antibodies known as “magic bullets” for treating disease and other scientifically exciting cell engineering innovations. The aim of the lab is to establish a global research hub that will hopefully someday provide breakthroughs in the way medical science seeks to treat diseases like cancer, Parkinson’s, and many other debilitating ailments.

“We are already helping thousands of patients with our current umbilical cord stem cell treatments, but this ultra high-tech lab will bring us even closer to our goal of helping millions of patients improve their quality of life and will ensure that we have more advanced products in our pipeline four to five years out.” said Beike Biotech’s Chairman, Dr. Sean Hu. Detailed patient experiences with videos of patients that have been treated with Beike’s umbilical cord treatment can be found on China’s stem cell news website: http://www.stemcellschina.com.

The 1,200 square meter laboratory will be housed in Beijing-based Tsinghua University’s special Shenzhen Graduate Campus located in this southern Chinese city that borders Hong Kong. Building on Beike’s years of experience in successfully using stem cells to treat humans with serious brain and nerve maladies, this designated “China Key Laboratory” marks the country’s entry into the current global race to find new stem cell therapies that can be applied medically. The USD $4 million grant will be spent purely on equipment and comes from the Shenzhen Municipal Government as part of a US$12 million grant given out in 2007 to encourage innovative technologies in Shenzhen.

Further grants from the government are expected to help cover the cost of running the lab and expansion. The lab is to be staffed by over 50 people, including 20 renowned Chinese Phd’s and well-known researchers like Dr. Zhang Hai, who has published articles widely in Western periodicals, for example, “Nature” of her breakthroughs in research of microRNA and other cell building blocks.

“Dr. Zhang Hai is a pioneer and our work with her will allow Beike to lead the world not only in clinical applications of stem cells but also in basic research. Outside of China, it is not easy to get a 20 Phd’s together in a first class lab focusing on stem cell research. We expect to have some breakthroughs come out of this and more publications in leading journals,” Dr. Sean Hu said. 

Stem cells are the master cells that replenish all the body’s tissues, from skin and blood to the brain and heart. They have proven capability to assist in nerve and organ regeneration, enable tissue repair and restoration, and are even thought to be able to effectively treat cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Beike currently has seen significant success using stem cells to treat a variety of nervous system disorders for Chinese and International patients alike. (Details can be found at http://www.stemcellschina.com). Many of these conditions are still deemed untreatable using conventional medical techniques and account for an estimated 60% of gross mortality worldwide. While not currently possible, scientists in labs like the one being established in Shenzhen are narrowing in on the technology that may soon allow for the reprogramming of human body cells. This would allow for the potential to regenerate nerve cells to heal spinal cord injuries, create one’s own pancreatic cells to stop diabetes, or possibly generate cells of any other tissue type to treat whatever ails patients. This makes the successful application of stem cells of vital significance to human health and the medical field.

About Beike Biotechnology Company Limited

Beike is a biotechnology company that was founded in July 2005 with capital from Beijing University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Shenzhen City Hall when it commercialized stem cell technology that had been in research since 1999. As a private high-tech enterprise, it is dedicated to the clinical application of stem cell research. It is also supported with funds from the China State National Fund. The research and clinical work is a collaboration of Beijing University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, No. 3 Army Medical University, Zhongshan Medical University, Guiyang Medical College and Zhengzhou University.

About The Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University

The Graduate School of Tsinghua University in Shenzhen is an institute jointly established by Shenzhen City Hall and Tsinghua University to provide training for talent at the postgraduate level in science and technical innovation. As the only non-Beijing located educational facility run by Tsinghua University, the Graduate School of Tshinghua in Shenzhen is committed to the integration of teaching, research, and rapid commercialization of scientific discovery.

For more information, please contact:

Jonathan Hakim

Beike Biotech Company, Ltd.

Shenzhen Hi-Tech Industrial Park

info@beikebiotech.com

http://www.beikebiotech.com

A speaker at the first “Wellness Tourism Seminar Workshop” in the Philippines was reported as saying that,” The Philippines was not only lacking in facilities, the industry itself is not organised.” And then we get the opposite from the Department of Tourism and the Spa Association saying they have ‘unique’,'the best’ ‘to entice foreign vsitors’.

Of course the competitive costs are mentioned along with Filiino hospitality. Enter Malaysia who is gearing up to become a medical tourism hub. At least they acknowledge they have a long way to go to catch up to Singapore and Thailand who have gained a strong reputation as good service providers at a reasonable price. Then the race gets a little dirty as a Managing Director was quoted as saying, “We need to be much more aggressive with marketing and promotional activities”.

 I take issue with the use of the word “aggressive”. People looking to save money on dental, cosmetic or surgical work do not need to become victims of aggressive marketing. Of course they are the consumers of a product but hopsitals that launch sales and marketing arms alarm me because of the language they use.I say ‘Let the consumer speak’. I don’t need or want high pressure sales pitches. I note that in India, which excels in saturation internet marketing hype has seen a decrease in patients from America and the U.K. in the last year. Maybe this is partly because people are not stupid and aggressive marketing forgets to take into account consumer’s perceptions about a country. If you can’t live up to the hype then you will pay for it. That’s good, because it is known from the Institute of Medicine data that over 100,000 accidental deaths occur every year in hospitals - and that is in the U.S.!!! People know that hopsitals are dangerous places to be.

For a clean race then we need hospitals that practice high quality medicine and unbeatable service. Selling healthcare is not the same as selling toothpaste. Thank God that Thailand does not need to indulge in aggressive marketing. 

This story is just another example of how people are being helped to a healthier and better quality of life right now - thanks to adult stem cells.

The hype makes one gasp and stretch one’s eyes!Columbia University are using mesenchymal stem cells derived from patients’ own bone marrow or adipose (fat) tissue then implanting them over a scaffold where they go to work creating bone, fat, cartilage and other types of cells.

Imagine what this could (and will) mean for victims of accident or war and all those who have had disfiguring sugery for cancer. Grafts shrink and lose their shape and volume. In animal studies to date these implants do not - and, of course, there is no risk of rejection. Apart from that, grafts taken from a patient’s body create additional wounds.

This is amazing stuff and will bring realistic hope to all those who have disfiguring scars because these cells replicate themselves and differentiate into what the area needs.
Another example of how science is being driven forwards so rapidly in this exciting area of regenerative medicine. There’s nothing alternative about it - this is mainstream medicine with vast potential. Adult stem cell research results are being released virtually daily.

We are truly living in exciting times that will bring new hope to the hopeless and new lives to those suffering from a vast range of previously considered untreatable or hopeless conditions. Diseases like Freidreich’s Ataxia can be helped right now. Heart Failure patients and those who can only walk with great pain from periperal artery disease (PAD) can be helped right now. The list goes on and on. It’s my privilege to make therapies using adult stem cells  known so that patients can join the thousands already leading new lives because of them

Adult stem cells help kids with diabetes - Hot off the Press! Another study has shown that adult stem cells have the potential to help patients with various diseases. Seven children aged from 2-7 with diabetes were given adult stem cells. The group was matched with 13 who were treated solely by insulin. Results to date show that the therapy helped enhance blood glucose control and management. Given that some 21 million Americans have diabetes which can lead to severely debilitating or fatal complications, this is really exciting news.

The number of conditions being successfully treated with adult stem cells continues to grow. Regenerative medicine has to be the most exciting thing around. Ask any heart disease or PAD patient and they will tell you that they never dreamed they could return to a more active, energetic and pain-free life. I wonder how long before the FDA will approve adult stem cell therapy as a safe, effective and mainstream procedure

I don’t like to be cynical but who can you trust? Some 500,000 will travel abroad this year for health services so we expect the big boys to form associations to make a dollar. We know the U.S. health system is run by lawyers and we know that many who travel abroad for dental, cosmetic and surgical services are not particularly wealthy or uninsured. What most patients say is that they can have the treatment they want safely in an accredited hospital at about a 70 percent saving. It makes sense but buyer beware.

If you read the ads for hospitals in some countries you would be persuaded - you are a targeted and profiled consumer. Remember that there are good apples and bad apples BUT we at ThaiMed Associates will only work with hospitals we know and trust and which are internationally accredited. We believe there is a place in the medical tourism market for a boutique firm that starts with the patient not the provider.

Here in Thailand, the hospitals not only cope, they are well staffed and welcoming. For heavens sake, they even have VALET PARKING!  You arrrive feeling frail, and you’ll be assisted from the vehicle while someone take’s care of parking it for you! People will focus immediate professional care on you!

Unlike Christchurch Hospital, where parking is still a nightmare… Try arriving there (as I did a while ago) with a broken Archilles tendon… I eventually found a park almost a kilometre away from the hospital, and hobbled very cautiously and very slowly to the Accident & Emergency department. On entry, I was asked my problem at the reception desk. On explaining my predicament, I was rudely ticked off for walking in! No sympathy when I suggested it was somewhat more dignified than crawling in on hands and knees, and that I’d already had to drive 130 kms to get there!   :-)

From that point, I was instructed to sit in a wheelchair and there I waited for over 3 hours before any more attention was squandered on me…

Some of us are old enough to remember when nursing was a vocation and nurses excelled at all the little things that add to patient comfort and make a hospital stay as bearable as possible. That’s why nursing is always up near the top of polls of the most trusted and admired professions. We worked long hours but always made time to reassure patients and truly care for them with compassion and skill.

All that has gone in many countries now. Nurses are now technicians and so busy there is no time to care. This is true in many Western countries I believe. The health system is stretched - patients wait, lawyers pounce and technology rules. High labour costs have ensured fewer nurses on the ground.

So, what about Thailand and what do patients say about Thai nurses? Here the labour costs are comparatively low. Nurses are well trained and add to that the cultural imperative of hospitality in this society and you have nurses who attend to, indeed anticipate, every need. And there seems to be so many of them! They always seem to have time and are not only a smiling presence but know what they are doing. Patients always say they have had a level of care far better than they would have received at home.

I interview many patients here for adult stem cell therapy and for PAD. Without exception they say that the hospital facilities and the medical and nursing staff far surpass what they would have expected to receive. True, many thought Thailand was a third world country BEFORE they came. That simply isn’t true. The private hospitals here are internationally accredited and offer state-of-the-art facilities, more like a five-star hotel than what we would consider normal for a hospital. People desperately ill who come to Bangkok for adult stem cell therapy for heart failure, PAD, congestive heart failure and cardiomyopathy go home as the best and most vocal of advocates for Thailand’s medical system.

I hope that Thai nurses stay just as they are. Attentive, skilled, compassionate, smiling and caring.

In a simple procedure his cardiothoracic surgeon here (who, incidentally, has spent many years working in the U.S.) withdrew about half a pint of the patients own blood which was taken to a lab where the therapeutic stem cells were isolated and multiplied many times. These were returned to his body by direct injection into his heart muscle.

The patient had been told that it may take up to six months before he joined the 75+ percent who felt considerable benefit after adult stem cell therapy.

Just days later the man got out of his wheelchair and walked without effort and without experiencing any shortness of breath. He was sleeping better and had no angina. His wife, with tears in her eyes, called it a miracle. Yes, it is. The body has a remarkable capacity to heal itself - regenerative medicine is just now finding out how. He joins the hundreds who havebeen treated in Bangkok for heart failure, cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure and who have gained a new lease on life. Good luck to him.

Jon

ThaiMed Associates is operated by Jon Bradshaw and Ben Kemp, two expatriate Kiwi’s living and working in Thailand. Jon is an NZ “Registered Nurse” and has worked extensively in Thailand as a journalist covering medical tourism issues.

We describe ourselves as “Heathcare Service Brokers” because we operate just like mortgage brokers… A mortgage broker matches client’s circumstances with bank’s lending criteria,  faciltiates the relationship between the two parties - and is paid a commission by the bank in return for their efforts.

As Healthcare Service Brokers, we match our client’s requirements and budgets with our partner hospitals, dentists and cosmetic surgeons… We facilitate the provision of affordable, high-quality medical care, negotiating across cultural and language barriers. In return, we receive a modest commission from the service provider for faciltiating the arrangement. 

However - you, as our client, pay exactly the same price you would if you’d arranged the service yourself. The difference being that you do so with the benefit of our advice and local knowledge, avoiding any pitfalls and mis-understandings in the process!

We have competitors… but our Unique Points of Difference are that;

• We are “real” people, not a faceless corporate entity based in the USA…
• With us, the guys that own the business DO the business…
• We actually LIVE in Thailand - and know the place like home!

 Kind regards

Ben & Jon