Claudia Rutt, the CFO of DATRI Blood Stem Cell Donors Registry, speaks with Jeevan Prakash Sharma on the challenges registries face in India.
Why do you charge Rs 8 lakh to Rs 10 lakh when donation comes voluntarily and free?
The donation by the donor is free of cost. However, the entire process is not. Chances of finding a match are 1:10,000 to 1:1 million. There are more than 2,600 patients in our base waiting for a match. So if we have to recruit 10,000 donors for a match and each HLA typing costs us Rs 1,800 (reduced rate offered by Histogenetics to DATRI), then the cost of donors recruited equals to Rs 1,800 multiplied by 10,000. Add the cost of medical tests of donors prior to donation, his/her travel and stay; the cost of GCSF injections and the cost of collection in a hospital. These costs do not include administrative expenses of running an organisation like DATRI. It is a not-for-profit and does not have government funding. The costs are covered either by CSR funding or...
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