Eugenio La Mesa's Blog on Social Business

Cure Thalassemia MoU with Narayana Hrudayalaya/MSCC on BMT for thalassemia,research and lower the cost

Cure Thalassemia has signed a new MoU with the Narayana Hrudayalaya(NH)  and the Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Centre(MSCC) in India.

It is about

• Cure Thalassemia patients can do BMT at NH/MSCC with the daily supervision of Dr. Pietro Sodani 
• significantly reduce the cost of the BMT
• do research in the field of BMT both for matched donor and haploidentical BMT

More deatiled info in the Cure Thalassemia blog.

Thanks to all the people who made this agreement possibile, I'm firmly convinced that the joint staff of Cure Thalassemia, Narayana Hrudayalaya and the Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Centre can do great things for the thalassemia patients.

Agenda of my third trip to India for Cure Thalassemia

In October 2010 I did my first trip to India for Cure Thalassemia; in July 2011 the second one.

In a few days I'll go to Bangalore with Pietro Sodani and Stav Melides. 
We will discuss with  Narayana Hrudayalaya hospital and the Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Center the status of the BMT project both in Hyderabad and in Bangalore, including the possibility to start doing BMT from Haplomather; a joint research project on BMT and a thalassemia excellence check-up center.

 26 November 2011 Saturday

02.00 AM    Landing at Bangalore Airport 
05.00 AM    Arriving at the Hotel
09.30 AM    Meeting with the management of the Narayana Hrudayalaya hospital and the Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Center

 2.00 PM     Meeting with patients
 8.00 PM     Pietro Sodani lecture on Bone Marrow Transpltantation in Thalassemia at the Bangalore hematologist association

 27 November 2011 Sunday

 3.30 AM     Fligth from Bangalore to Rome

Agenda of my second trip to India for Cure Thalassemia

In October 2010 I did my first trip to Hyderabad for Cure Thalassemia.

In a few days I'll go for the second trip to Hyderabad and Bangalore, with Pietro Sodani, Stav Melides and Cristiano Gallucci. Thanks to all my indian friends for the excellent and hard work they have done in the last months, without them this would have not happened.

A usual, we will have a very busy schedule, including the inauguration of the BMT unit!

I'll write more once I'll come back from India.

09.07.2011 Saturday

08.55 AM    Landing at Hyderabad Airport 
11.00 AM    Arriving at the Hotel
12.30 PM    Meeting with associated Doctors & nurses.
 2.30 PM     Lunch
 3.30 PM     Visit to Thalassemia Society office  for meeting with patients & final selection of prospective patient for BMT
 7.00 PM     Review meeting about whole project & advise about missing links.
 8.30 PM     Dinner

10.07.2011 Sunday

 9.00 AM     To start for CURE THALASSEMIA BMT Unit at Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospitals
11.00 AM     Formal Inauguration of above unit by Dr. Pietro Sodani
11.45 AM     Press Conference
 1.30 PM      Lunch
 4.00 PM      Discussion about legal frame work & financial matters
 8.30 PM      Dinner

11.07.2011 Monday
 
 8.30 AM      Fligth from Hyderabad to Bangalore
10.30 AM     Visit at the Headquarter of the Narayana Hrudayalaya
 2.00 PM      Meeting with Dr. Devi Shetty, Narayana Hrudayalaya founder and CEO
 6.00 PM      Dinner
10.00 PM     Meeting with Vallabh Rao of Ashoka India

12.07.2011 Tuesday
 
 4.00 AM     Fligth from Bangalore to Rome 

BMT training of the indian doctors with Prof. Lucarelli and Pietro Sodani in Rome

2 indian doctors have spent 1 week in Rome to be trained on Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT) by Prof. Guido Lucarelli (Cure Thalassemia scientific advisor) and Pietro Sodani (Cure Thalassemia co-founder and scientic coordinator):

• Dr. Shailesh Singi (Cure Thalassemia Chief Medical Program Director), now Chief of Department of Hematology at CARE Hospital. 
• Dr Sharat Damodar (Cure Thalassemia scientific advisor), now Head, BMT Unit Narayana Hrudayalaya Multi speciality Hospital & Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Center in Bangalore.

They will be in charge of the Cure Thalassemia Narayana Hrudayalaya Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit in Hyderabad, under the guidance and supervision of Prof. Lucarelli and Dr. Sodani.

Research
We also had an interesting dinner together with some friends who are helping Cure Thalassemia in different ways.

During the dinner we started to talk with Sharat Damodar (who works with Dr. Devi Shetty, the founder and CEO of Narayana Hrudayalaya) to sign another agreement to do research together, on these topics

• to improve the results of BMT from match donor
• to improve the results of BMT from mismatched donor
• lower the cost of BMT (like Narayana did for heart surgery)
• find other cures for thalassemia
• BMT for sickle cell

We should go to India in July, both to Hyderabad and to Bangalore, where we will visit Narayana Hrudayalaya (the biggest pediatric heart hospital of the world) and should meet with Dr. Devi Shetty.

I'm very happy, this has been another important step for the Cure Thalassemia project!

MoU between Narayana Hrudayalaya and Cure Thalassemia!

We have signed the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospitals!

Dr. Devi Shetty - Narayana Hrudayalaya founder and CEO
He was the surgeon of Mother Teresa. Founder and CEO of Narayana Hrudayalaya, a 6,000 bedded prominent Indian Hospital chain, the world’s largest heart hospital for children.

He is called “the Henry Ford of Indian hearth care”; he has revolutionized the way quality health care is provided to masses with lowest affordable cost.

He was awarded Social Entrepreneurship Award by World Economic Forum in 2005, and Ernst & Young - Entrepreneur of the year in 2003; Wall Street Journal showcased it on of its cover story; Discovery Channel made a documentary. His story is written by Forbes, Reader Digest, and New Scientist and appears in two of the books from the Harvard Business School and from Prof. C.K Prahlad.
Harvard Business Social conducted a case study on him that is now the most studied case in all business schools and most quoted case studies in health care industry.

Cure Thalassemia Narayana Hrudayalaya Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit, Hyderabad

We will start doing Bone Marrow Transplantation to cure thalassemia children in Hyderabad, and the name of the joint-venture is  "Cure Thalassemia Narayana Hrudayalaya Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit, Hyderabad”.

Dr. Shetty - Chairman of the Advisory management committee

There is an joint Advisory management committee, and Dr. Devi Shetty is the Chairman, and I'm the Vice President.

We met them during my first trip in October, and in a few months we negotiated and signed this agreement, which is a fundamental milestone for us.
This result is a great satisfaction, honour, and privilege for me and the people involved in the Cure Thalassemia project. l
Without the help, passion, commitment and hard work of my indian friends (especialy Mr. Chandrakant Agrawal) this would have not been possible.

MoU signature at JCU
I've signed the MoU at the John Cabot University in Rome, in the office of the President Franco Pavoncello, using the JCU pen that he gave me as a present after my lecture on Social Business of the previous week. 
Thanks from the bottom of my heart to all the JCU friends, who are helping me a lot.

The dream is becoming real!

Yunus Social Business Fund in India

As I wrote, Grameen Creative Lab has now an office in Mumbai.

GCL Mumbai also launched the Yunus Social Business Fund of Mumbai with Rupees 5 crores to begin with.

“The Yunus Social Business Fund Mumbai is the first social business fund in India. The fund is managed out of Mumbai and is ready to invest into and incubate social businesses across multiple sectors in India,” says Hans Reitz, co-founder of the Grameen Creative Lab.

Prof. Yunus is also working with Oscar-winning film director Shekhar Kapur (I had the pleasure to meet him at the Global Social Business Summit last November) to start a social business fund to invest into water-related social businesses in India. Mr Kapur, who is passionate about water-related issues in India and is currently working on his new film “Paani” (“water” in Hindi), will act as ambassador for the fund.

I think this is a great news to start having many social business in India. 

Read more here.

Grameen Creative Lab expands to India

The Greameen Creative Lab is opening an office in Mumbai, India.

A few days ago they had the first Social Business Lab, with
 Hans Reitz, the Creative Advisor to Professor Yunus and co-founder of the Grameen Creative Lab, and  Aarti Wig, who will head the lab’s efforts in India, leading the event.

“There is a beautiful young generation that wants to change the country. Feeling this energy, it was very easy for us to decide that this is the place to come,” says Hans Reitz
“Mumbai can be a hub for social business in Asia” 

I know both Hans and Aarti (and most of the GCL team in Germany), and I wish them all the best for this new "adventure". We are in India with Cure Thalassemia, and we will find a way to collaborate. 

I see a great potential in India for social business. 

You can get in touch with the GCL Mumbai coordinator Aarti.Wig@grameencl.com

Read more here.

Final draft of the MoU with Narayana Hrudayala hospital

I've received the final draft of the MoU that Cure Thalassemia will sign with the Narayana Hrudayala hospital.
SInce we met them in October 2010 in Hyderabad, things are moving very fast. My friend and partner Chandrakant Agrawal has met several times Narayana management, and our collaboration is going very well.

We should sign the MoU in the next weeks, and this is a very important milestone for the Cure Thalassemia social business project in India.

I'm honored to work with such an important and respected organization. Its founder, Dr. Devi Shetty,is a huge source of inspiration for me, like Dr. V of Aravind Eye Care and Prof. Yunus of Grameen.

The next steps will be to finalize the business plan and to find the social investors for the money that we need to start. 

"Cure Thalassemia" will attend Social Mashup organized by UnLtd India

UnLtd India organizes Social Mashup on 2nd and 3rd of December in Hyderabad.
The start-up social entrepreneurship movement will come together for two groundbreaking days of conversations, connections and inspiration.

The attendees are start-up social entrepreneurs, senior social entrepreneurs, funders/investors and anyone else interested in early stage social entrepreneurship

Tha main partners are Indian School of Business, Ashoka India, Beyond Profit, and there are also speakers from Acumen Fund.

"Cure Thalassemia" will be there with my friend and partner Chandrakant Agrawal.

Cure Thalassemia will attend Sociopreneurship India 2010

On November 23rd in Bangalore there will be an important conference on Social Entrepreneurship called Sociopreneurship India 2010, organized by YourStory.in (the biggest indian web magazine on entrepreneurship) in collaboration with CNBC TV18 Young Turks.

The mission of the conference is to recognise and showcase Social Innovations and Entrepreneurs behind it in a forum that brings Social Investors, Social Entrepreneurs, Social Enterprises, Industry Experts and the Media together.

"Cure Thalassemia" is the new Social Business that I've cofounded with my friends Pietro Sodani and Chandrakant Agrawal; Prof. Guido Lucarelli (the inventor of Bone Marrow Transplantation for the cure of Thalassemia) is our scientific coordinator.
We will be there with Mr. Chandrakant, who will meet with social investors; in fact we are finalizing our business plan and signing an MoU with an Hosptial, and the next step is to find social investors for the startup of our new Social Business.

YourSotry.in has already interviewed me about Cure Thalassemia

panelists/speakers:
Shereen Bhan, Executive Editor, CNBC TV 18
Charles Assisi, Executive Editor, Forbes India
Rahul Bedi, Director, Corporate Affairs, Intel South Asia
Geeta Goel, Director,Global Microfinance Initiative, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation
Sandeep Farias, Founder and Managing Director, Elevar Equity Kanwaljit
Singh, Managing Director, Helion Venture Partners
Alok Mittal, Managing Director, Canaan Partners
Brij Mohan,Chairman, ACCESS Development Services
Sujit Jain, Founder, Netsurf Communications
Eric Savage,President, Unitus Capital
Ramesh Ramanathan, Chairman,
Janalakshmi Abhijit Ray,Director,Unitus Capital T
 
Sponsors and partners
Unitus Capital
Knowledgefaber
Sulochana Development Trust
Ennovent
National Social Entrepreneurship Forum (NSEF)
British Council
Netsurf Communication
Harvard Business Publishing
The Nadathur S. Raghavan Center for Entrepreneurial Learning
Triple Pundit
ThinkChange India,
Microfinance Focus (MF)
Indiamicrofinance.com
The Better India
Photographers for Charity India
MakeSense
Socialter

Thanks to Vallabh Rao for the invitation.