Hi everyone,
I’ve recorded a new stem cell podcast for the past week.
Topics include the first patient in a CIRM-supported clinical trial, a proteomics paper on iPS and ES cells, stem cell tourism, the CIRM grantee meeting, and big tent team science amongst others.
Thought you’d be interested in this article.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
New Zealand: Where Stem Cell Scam Companies Get Stock Exchange Listings
By Richard Smith
To start in a surprising but appropriate place, here are four video segments about stem cell heath scams from CBS, last year. If you don’t have time for 20 minutes of video, then at least look at this (just over a minute), which should give the basic idea.
These scams are loathsome, preying on the old, the sick and the desperate.
Back in 2008, the UK’s New Scientist magazine had a helpful article about what it called “stem-cell scams”:
If you or a loved one is desperately ill and considering treatment with stem cells, here’s a document you definitely should read: a newly released guide (pdf) from the International Society for Stem Cell Research to help patients negotiate the minefield of clinics claiming to be able to cure all manner of ills.
Section 11 of that PDF (“What should I be cautious about if I am considering a stem cell therapy?”) gives a list of red flags:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/09/new-zealand-where-health-scam-companies-get-stock-exchange-listings.html
Paul how do you ascertain what is dubious? While the U.S. debates ethics it seems other countries with the help of US companies are plowing ahead.
See:
The Rebirth of Stem Cells
Between 1994 and 2006, 45 and 37% of the drugs withdrawn from the
market were due to cardio and liver toxicity respectively. The most
recent casualty has been GSK’s diabetes drug Avandia, which proved
toxic to the heart after it hit the market. Minger suggests that both
pharma companies and the U.S. FDA should test drugs on his new stem
cell models for more accurate results. With his models, “you can tell
early on whether this drug will cause problems in humans,” he asserts.
Chemists can then keep the parts that have produced the desired result
and improve the defective part of the molecule, he points out.
“My model is Devi Shetty [cardiac surgeon and promoter of Narayana
Hrudalaya Hospitals], providing first world treatment at third world
prices,” he says. Minger has been visiting India regularly and is
aware that “cellular therapy is not new here”. “Balu [D.
Balasubramanian, director of research at L.V. Prasad Eye Institute in
Hyderabad] is my idol. His hospital has treated more than 3 million
patients in five years, and mostly free,” he says. Initially, though,
the cost of cellular technology will be high, “we will bring it down,”
says Minger.
http://www.forbes.com/2011/09/26/forbes-india-rebirth-stem-cells-stephen-minger.html
I mean I understand your concerns…but is any potential treatment full proof? If someone dies and others can be helped…is the treatment ineffective? Thanks for the podcast. Keep up the good work.
Patient, doctors encouraged by ALS trial
(CNN) — A little more than two years ago, Ted Harada felt his left leg weakening, and he found himself quickly running out of breath. Doctors first thought he had asthma, but in May 2010 they told him he probably had ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
In August 2010, doctors confirmed Harada, then 38, had the fatal disease, and he knew it was progressing.
Harada joined a clinical trial at Emory University in Atlanta, where doctors were injecting neural stem cells — the precursors to nerve cells — into the lower spinal cord of ALS patients.
Before the procedure, Harada walked with a cane and would get winded just by walking to the mailbox. He had to quit his job as a manager for a shredding company. He was so tired he couldn’t play with his three children. He was too weak to pick up his youngest child. He couldn’t even open a Ziploc bag.
Harada hoped the treatment would help, but he didn’t expect it to. However, two weeks after getting the stem cell injections in March, he says he started to feel better.
“It’s been nothing short of miraculous,” he says. “I cannot begin to explain the difference it has made.”
He hasn’t touched his cane in months, he says, and his breathing has improved.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/28/health/early-als-trial-results-encouraging/