Bhubaneswar startup spreads smile among people by giving fertility solutions

BHUBANESWAR: Now the newly married couples, who have career planning and do not want early parenthood, can take help of a city-based startup ‘Santaan’ to preserve or freeze their eggs, sperms and embryos for making a baby in the future. This startup has set up research labs and clinic here and Berhampur to provide complete solutions to people facing infertility issues.
The sperms, eggs and embryos are preserved through cryopreservation technique. This technique uses very low temperatures to preserve living cells and tissues at a temperature of -196 degree Celsius. Liquid nitrogen is also utilized for this purpose. People suffering from cancer can preserve their eggs or sperms before starting of their treatment. Even men can go for sperm cryopreservation before undergoing vasectomy surgery.
Raghab Prasad Panda, 43, CEO and co-founder of Santaan, said overall prevalence of primary infertility in India is between 3.9 to 16.8 per cent and it varies from state to state. “People have come forward for sperm and egg cryopreservation. We also provide in vitro fertility (IVF) treatment along with other facilities. Both urban and rural people come to our clinic seeking solutions,” he added.

Panda, a management professional, started the startup in 2015 with his school friend Satish Prasad Rath, 43, a paediatrics physician and a researcher. As both of them belong to Berhampur, they had started the startup at Berhampur and then in Bhubaneswar later.

“We came up with the startup to do something innovative in the field. We are conducting research in creating affordable and reliable next-gen embryo monitoring and selection system with the help of IIT Hyderabad. This system is used for the IVF process. Department of science and technology under the Union ministry of human resource development has provided funding for the research. After this, the indigenous machine will come to the Indian market and drastically reduce the treatment cost,” he added.

He said the state government has also helped them to work on the use of internet of things (IoT) based 3D printed time-lapse smart microscope for embryo monitoring in IVF clinics. It will also reduce the cost of the treatment, he added.

Panda said they first faced problem in getting good embryologists in the market. “So we started providing embryology course training to science graduates and post graduates from a biology background. Around 50 of them have got placements in India’s best fertility clinics. These technicians get hands-on comprehensive training on IVF and other fertility treatment procedures. Even we train doctors on some sophisticated infertility treatment procedures,” he added.

The most important aspect of the startup is preventive breast cancer screening. Current early diagnosis methods involve harmful radiation and sometimes invasive and painful. But the startup delivers accessible, affordable and no-touch procedure for breast cancer screening through Termalytix solution. “A camera like a tool connected with a computer is used for the method. Unlike mammography, the imaging method is radiation free, non-touch, not painful and works for women of all ages and during pregnancy too. We are setting up camps in different places of the state for screening,” he added.

Panda said they have started making profits from their startup. “We had invested around Rs 8 crore for the lab, clinics and training modules. Now we are doing fine in this sector,” he added.