Business
The Bahamas promoting medical tourism: $5 million stem cell clinic approved
An American investor has received approval from the Bahamas Ministry of Health to develop a cutting-edge clinic on Grand Bahama specializing in stem cell therapy.
Okyanos Heart Institute will spend US$5 million on equipment and construction to bring the island’s first formidable medical tourism product to life.
Geared towards “last chance” cardiac patients, the procedure involves the extraction of stem cells from body fat. While the method has been approved by regulators in the European Union, it has yet to receive a nod from the US Food and Drug Administration.
And it is exactly that pending approval that should make Okyanos enticing to American patients, according to Matt Feshbach, the primary investor.
“This procedure is for patients that have exhausted all other treatments currently available. In Europe, through rigorous trials, they received statistically significant results,” he said.
Feshbach has worked as a fund manager and private investor for the past 30 years and, after EU approval, sought the appropriate venue to market the treatment to the world.
The Bahamas, he said, is the ideal place for the Okyanos Heart Institute, which is scheduled to open by September.
