The stem cell clinic StemGenex was sued almost a year ago related to allegations about their marketing claims. This proposed class action suit, Moorer v. StemGenex, now includes five named patients involved as one can see from the new fourth amended complaint court document.
The five total named patients involved in the suit include four new ones Alexandra Gardner of Colorado, Stephen Ginsberg of California, Jennifer Brewer of Montana, and Rebecca King of Arkansas, and then the original plaintiff Selena Moorer, who is a resident of Florida. Reportedly each StemGenex customer paid $14,900 for their stem cell transplant.
Notably, four of the patients mentioned in the document traveled from other states to the San Diego area to receive stem cells from StemGenex. This seems to be a more general thing with the business and its customers as the amended complaint document quoted the StemGenex website that, “over 70% of patients travel to StemGenex Medical Group from out of state.”
Besides the business itself, the Defendants listed include the following: “ANDRE P. LALLANDE, D.O., SCOTT SESSIONS, M.D., RITA ALEXANDER, and DOES 1-100.” The LA Times recently reported that Sessions was the subject of California State Medical Board action. I think that he is no longer associated with StemGenex. For other archived posts on StemGenex see here. The new court document indicates that the health conditions of the plaintiffs for which they thought stem cells might help include lupus, diabetes, painful spine and joint condition, and Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
More broadly businesses marketing non-FDA approved stem cells to patients claim that stem cells can help a whole array of health problems. In my opinion it is highly unlikely that one or even two types of stem cells could be a safe and effective way to treat so many conditions. The data just isn’t there from properly controlled studies.
The suit against StemGenex makes specific allegations about the clinic’s marketing and practices. The first 3 parts of the action described in the new document provide some sense of the specific major allegations:
“1. This is a class action against STEMGENEX MEDICAL GROUP, INC., and related persons and entities (collectively, “Defendants” or “StemGenex”). This action arises out of StemGenex’s scheme to wrongfully market and sell “stem cell treatments” at their La Jolla, California location to consumers nationwide.
2. StemGenex’s consumers are often sick or disabled, suffering from incurable diseases and a dearth of hope. StemGenex’s marketing makes claims to these consumers that by performing liposuction of a person’s adult fat cells, processing them, and injecting them back into a person as stem cells (the “Stem Cell Treatments”), they effectively treat a multitude of diseases.
3. StemGenex claims that 100% of its prior consumers are satisfied with its service. StemGenex has no reasonable basis to make the claim it has made about 100% consumer satisfaction. StemGenex omits material information from all marketing about the Stem Cell Treatments and the dissatisfaction and complaints of ineffectiveness from people who have purchased the treatments.”
The case remains open and to my knowledge its class status is not yet approved. The specific allegations also have not been addressed in court as to their veracity. The case could be dismissed, it could proceed as a class suit or move forward but not as a class suit, or it could be settled.
My provide and staff were cordial but the treatment simply did not deliver the regenerative outcomes as described in their website.
I have not seen positive results for me as promised and described in the marketing. I have not experienced positive outcome at all. Initially it worsened my symptoms.
My husband was treated at Stemgenex for Parkinson’s’. He is actually worse now than before the procedure. How can we join the class action lawsuit? clettiere@sbcglobal.net
Come on people. seriously? Stem cell transplants are such a promising solution to a myriad of health problems, but it’s in its infancy. so you have a choice: become a bionic person who goes through major surgery and a likelihood of infection, or give a new science a shot. Stop your whining. I just went through a stem cell transplant into my knee and hip and two weeks later I am doing so much better, but there are no guarantees at this point. It is a developing science and so we have to pay out of pocket. Medicare coverage is not exactly progressive and on the cutting edge! So sad that something so promising brings out the quacks and the lawyers.
Carol, I happen to be one of the patients that joined the lawsuit. What you may not be aware of is the actual reason for the suit. Stemgenex had false claims in the literature that was mailed out to potential patients prior to us signing up for the procedure Had I not been given false information I would not have proceeded. My procedure was in 2014 and I still have the packet sent to me. I was not helped by the procedure nor did it cause me harm. I believe Rita knew the procedure did not help people and was in it for the money only. I also want to point out that Stemgenex targeted people with chronic conditions like MS and Parkinson’s.
@Tim,
Thanks for your comment.
With Stemgenex having filed for bankruptcy, what’s the status of the lawsuit?
Stemgenex now operates under the name Advanced Cell Medicine. They changed their name to disassociate themselves with the lawsuit. http://www.advancedcellmedicine.com. Even the logo is the same.
Thanks, Steven. How do you know this is Stemgenex under a new name? The logo seems a bit different. I don’t see any doctors listed on the new site to compare.
This law suit is bogus. Adipose stem cell therapy has helped hundreds of ill people. Included me. Nothing works 100% in the medical world. Its all politics as usual. The conservative culture has done what they can to stop the science and therapy of then cell culture. With Trump its worst.
I was considering treatment-too many people are suing or complaining-the lawsuit is bogus says you-you an attorney I doubt it-then you mention Trump-your opinion is worthless-i forgot your a doctor-i will not waste my $$
I am a past patient of Dr. Lallande. He is extremely knowledgeable in the treatment of autoimmune disease .Probably the best I’ve ever been to .I can’t imagine him ever considering anything illegal or immoral when it comes to patient care. He is one of the most compassionate Dr.s that I have ever met. He treated me go 10 years.
How do I get involved with the class action suit? I was a patient of Stemgenex, treatment was for MS, in June of 2016. Been having severe migraines and extreme fatigue since stem cell transplant. If someone could please contact me at Terih39@outlook.com It would be greatly appreciated.
I had this procedure through Stemgenex in 2014 and paid $14,900 for Multiple Sclerosis. They did disclose there were no guarantees but other patients had seen good results. They put you up in a very nice hotel by the beach. They take you to the clinic the next day and intoduce you to the doctor. The clinic was for plastic surgery! At that point they let us know that the doctor who was going to perform the procedure was a plastic surgeon to “famous people”. At that point I thought something was off…..it was all about making you feel special at the time. Recovery room overlooked the beach etc. I got NO benefit and am still paying off the loan.
Thanks, Tina for sharing this. If Stemgenex has a reply to these comments from patients and families of patients who self-report being unhappy with their experiences, I’d be happy to post it.
For those of us not directly involved in these situations, but interested in them, we should do our best to get facts and get a better understanding what’s going on.
I’m not sure what the current status of the lawsuit is at this point.
i had the stem cell injection on april 27 2017. i paid 4500.00 had i not went to seminar
i would of paid 5000.00. i am still in the same shape with my knee as i was when i went there.
i am in constant pain 24/7 i absolutely did nothing for me. i know have to consult an orthopedic
dr. to have surgery done, as i have no life, i can’t hardly walk and had to get a handicap sticker
for my car. i am very discouraged as i am a retired factory worker and dont have that kind of money
to through away like that. i wonder if i have any recourse to a law suit. i sure need some help in this
matter. thanks for letting me reply.
Perhaps StemGenex is guilty of hyping their products/services/patient care? I think at one time Doctors were not allowed in our country to advertise, but they sure seem to today. Mainstream medicine appears so much like corporate business. Increasingly, patients seem more to have become simply a means to financial ends. Not a perfect system to say the least. But certainly not limited to mainstream medicine either as this article reminds us. But even if medicine were not essentially a business, it would still be an imperfect system. I guess that’s why it is called the Practice of Medicine after all. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the harm that came to these patients was limited to their pocket books? Given the tone of some of the rhetoric about “unproven therapies” even on this very website/blog, it sounds like things SHOULD have been much worse for these StemGenex patients. They did not develop, for instance, cancer. Consider that publications which emphasize science and medicine have released articles mentioning tumor formation relative to even adult autologous stem cells.
(https://www.statnews.com/2016/11/30/fda-califf-stem-cell-nejm/)
Statements in the above link likening adult stem cells to tumor formation seem fairly “Unproven” or at least unjustified to me.
Consider though that biomedical scientific research is not a perfect system either. I’m acquainted with a young man who works in grant processing at a large biomedical institute in Bethesda, Maryland. He’s told me on a few occasions that even scientists have to glorify (hype?) their work when applying for grant funding to keep their labs operating. I believe it! Just read or listen to the press on occasion. Remember for instance, genomic medicine or nano technology? The “promise”, “hope” and “excitement” of cell based therapies at some ambiguous point in the future. A future that seems to me very reminiscent of a mirage. (Lately the hype is relative to CRISPR and Big Data) Many describe their work in bio-medicine often times as though a revolution is just around the corner. But descriptions of this sort sound like a lot of speculation or perhaps even hype to me. Here’s some of my own speculation just as a lay person. Perhaps if the FDA did not classify autologous stem cells as prescription drugs and instead authorized their expansion for conditions that afflicted these poor patients in the first place, then lawsuits against clinics like StemGenex might occur much less often.
@Bill – the claims regarding patient satisfaction cannot be proven either way as patient self-reporting can be positioned according to need.
On the other hand, allegation 2. is more defined,
“that by performing liposuction of a person’s adult fat cells, processing them, and injecting them back into a person as stem cells, they [StemGenex] effectively treat a multitude of diseases.”
I hope they are asked to show controlled scientific evidence for this, especially for MS.
Here are the exact questions. Did these patients answer them? None of them address positive results.
How satisfied are you with the medical team that performed your treatment?
Do you consider StemGenex a trusted partner in the treatment of your disease?
Based upon your experience, would you feel comfortable recommending StemGenex to a friend or family member?
https://web.archive.org/web/20150311193636/http://stemgenex.com:80/
I think the real issue is this:
“StemGenex offers access to individualized stem cell treatment plans. Most stem cell treatment centers and clinics offer a standard treatment utilizing an IV or direct injections. We believe the key to the most effective stem cell treatment is through treatment plan customization. As each patient’s disease is different, each treatment must be tailored around their specific disease related complications and symptoms. This is why StemGenex offers access to individualized treatment plans which consist of targeted administration methods to hone in on each part of the body where the complications exist. Through customized, targeted stem cell treatment plans our goal is to offer patients access to stem cell treatment options a patient can truly benefit from to significantly improve one’s quality of life.”
Is that really true?
My guess is that 100% of the patients answered certain post-treatment (pre-results) survey questions positively, so the “patient satisfaction survey” is 100% positive. It should be easy enough to produce these patient satisfaction surveys to see if this claim is true or not.
Will 100% of their patients satisfied forever? Probably no doctor, clinic or hospital can make that claim. Is that the claim they are making? I don’t know.