LifeCell International, India's premier human cells tissues and genetics services provider, has now received accreditation from the American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB) for its birth tissue products. This accreditation positions LifeCell as the first & only company not only in India but also outside the US to receive this accreditation. This accreditation certifies the entire process of consent, birth tissue acquisition, processing, release, storage and distribution.

Birth tissue products include the placenta, umbilical cord, and amniotic fluid. Of these the most widely used product is the placental amniotic membrane, which is used as a biological bandage for management of wounds in a variety of specialities such as podiatry, ophthalmology, burns, gynaecology, general and plastic surgery.

This membrane is distributed in a sterile and dehydrated form and used as an intervention when standard wound care has failed. Over 200 growth factors, cytokines and speciality proteins, that are naturally present in the tissue, act as a catalyst for wound closure enabling a quick healing process. A fast and effective wound healing process would substantially decrease medical & hospitalisation costs, treatment period and significantly improve patients' quality of life.

The birth tissue products can be stored at room temperature at hospitals / pharmaceutical outlets without requiring any special storage requirements. Most importantly it can be used on any person without requiring any tissue matching criteria.

With these significant advantages, the rising awareness in the recent past has led to a surge in usage of these birth tissue products. The global market for birth tissue-derived membrane was valued at USD 2.26 Billion in 2017 with an estimated growth of 12% annually.

LifeCell will soon launch the product in India under the brand "Amchoplast" from its a manufacturing facility in Chennai.

Mr. Mayur Abhaya, Managing Director, LifeCell said, "India is the world's largest birthing country and therefore provides a natural opportunity for India to a leading supplier of these issues in the world. LifeCell aims to be a global market leader in this category and with this AATB accreditation we would soon set our foot-prints in the global export market to meet the growing demand for birth tissue products."

The American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB) is a professional, non-profit, scientific organization dedicated to improving and saving lives by promoting the safety, quality and availability of donated human tissue. The American Association of Tissue Banks is the premier standard-setting body promoting the safety and use of donated human tissue. AATB publishes standards, accredits tissue banks and certifies personnel and is the only national tissue banking organization in the United States.