NEW YORK, Sept. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NeoStem, Inc. , which is pioneering the pre-disease collection, processing and long-term storage of adult stem cells, today announced that the Company's CEO, Robin Smith, M.D., MBA, has been invited to participate at the World Stem Cell Summit on September 22-23, 2008 on a panel to discuss Medical Tourism.
Many individuals that seek alternative and advanced forms of medical treatment, leave their home country each year to seek medical treatment abroad. Their key objectives, according to the McKinsey Quarterly (May 2008), are to obtain, advanced technologies, better medical care than they could find in their home country, quicker access to medically necessary procedures, and lower costs for medically necessary procedures.
NeoStem believes it could benefit from Medical Tourism as, accordingly to the McKinsey Quarterly (May 2008), 40% of the people traveling to seek medical treatment travel to the United States. Our network in destination cities in the United States, such as New York, Miami, San Diego and Los Angeles will afford individuals who live outside the United States easier access to adult stem cell collection centers. "We have already begun to see international interest as evidenced by a collection performed at a NeoStem center in New York last week on an individual who lives in Dubai," says Dr. Robin Smith, Chairman and CEO of NeoStem.
Perhaps more intriguing is the recent Deloitte 2008 Survey of Health Care Consumers, which indicates that Medical Tourism is set to explode in growth over the next 3-5 years for people going outside of the United States to seek medical care. According to Deloitte, whereas in 2007, 750,000 Americans traveled abroad for medical care, it is anticipated that by 2010 this number will grow to 6 million. Dr. Smith stated, "NeoStem believes that individuals in increasing numbers will seek safe and effective stem cell therapies abroad that are not yet approved in the United States and many important clinical advances will be in hospitals and clinics outside the United States. We believe that we could gain value from this by including Medical Tourism in the Company's future business strategy."
Through NeoStem's efforts to develop our business model of collecting and storing stem cells of concerned and proactive adults, we have made connections with a range of physicians who are developing advanced therapies using autologous adult stem cells outside of the United States and recognize how important it is for people to have readily available and accessible, autologous stem cells for therapies and treatments. We look forward to the World Stem Cell Summit as an opportunity to share the knowledge we've gathered and to help make these medical advances a part of everyday medical practice.
The World Stem Cell Summit annually brings together representatives from the entire spectrum of professionals involved in the future of regenerative medicine. Dr. Smith will join a panel including Dr. Graham Creasey, Professor of Neurosurgery, Stanford University Medical Center, to discuss the risk and promise of "Medical Tourism," travel for the primary and explicit purpose of receiving medical treatment in a foreign country. This year's World Stem Cell Summit is presented by the Genetics Policy Institute and hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Stem Cell Regenerative Medicine Center and the WiCell Research Institute. The Summit takes place at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin.
About NeoStem, Inc.
NeoStem is managing a network of adult stem cell collection centers in major metropolitan areas in the United States, enabling people to donate and store their own (autologous) stem cells when they are young and healthy for their personal use in times of future medical need. The Company has also recently entered into research and development through the acquisition of a worldwide exclusive license to technology to identify and isolate VSELs (very small embryonic-like stem cells), which have been shown to have several physical characteristics that are generally found in embryonic stem cells.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, without limitation, statements regarding the future of Medical Tourism and NeoStem's participation in that future. Forward-looking statements reflect management's current expectations, as of the date of this press release, and involve certain risks and uncertainties. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. Factors that could cause future results to materially differ from the recent results or those projected in forward-looking statements include the "Risk Factors" described in the Company's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company's further development is highly dependent on future medical and research developments and market acceptance which is outside its control.
CONTACT: Robin Smith, Chief Executive Officer, of NeoStem, Inc.,
+1-212-584-4180, rsmith@neostem.com
Web site: http://www.neostem.com/
