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The world’s first kidney has been created by Indian Shuvo Roy that will give a lease of life to millions of diabetics, but how long is the wait going to be? Doctors feel for it to materialise from the trial stage to becoming commercialised, it could take at least 15 years, if not more.

And, what about the cost? Well, the cost is likely to remain astronomical for around five years after the therapy becomes commercially available. So, the common man can hope to reap the benefits much later.

Is there a way to make it available quickly? Unlikely. Moreover, if the product is patented, it is likely to take even longer to reach the masses, according to a medical practitioner, who deals in kidney ailments.

India has one of the highest number of patients who suffer kidney failure, also known as end-stage renal disease or ESRD. Over 1.5 lakh persons are diagnosed with ESRD every year and only 3 per cent are lucky to get a transplant, while around 10 per cent undergo dialysis, the cost of which is beyond the reach of the poor and the middle class. The remaining patients, who account for almost a whopping 90 per cent, are left to die owing to an acute shortage of dialysis facilities in the country.

The organ, which is of the same size as a coffee cup, can perform the kidney’s key functions such as filtering toxins, controlling blood pressure and produce Vitamin D.

The artificial kidney has been tested on a few pigs and rats. Trials on a larger number of animals are expected in another five years when even human trails could take place. This invention by Roy’s team at the University of California will do away with the need for dialysis.

Roy said the device has a filtration section to take out toxins from the blood. There is also a compartment with renal cells to conduct other functions of a kidney.

One encouraging sign, though. The creator and his team believe that the new kidney could last for decades and will not need pumps or batteries to keep it going. He also allayed fears of rejection, saying it wouldn’t be necessary (a perennial problem after transplants) as there would be no exposed natural tissues for the immune system to attack.

But Roy admitted that there’s no reason to cheer in the short term. “The payoff to patients is tremendous,” said Roy, adding, “it could have a transformative impact on their lives...With financial support, I think we could hope for clinical trials in five years. But it’s difficult to say how long it will take to become commercially available and viable.”

With the option of dialysis being offered only to a chosen few (10% of the patients), we can infer that this new artificial kidney will take at least 50 years to reach the common man in India!