Stem cell treatment cost is a big issue for patients now and longer term also for the stem cell field. If proven stem cell treatments end up costing too much then all that hard work to invent and test the therapies won’t have helped people much.
Million or multi-million dollar new therapies are not so unusual these days in the biotech world. Here are some recent examples:
- From ASH Clinical News on a Novartis drug:“AVXS-101, a treatment for spinal muscular atrophy, will cost $4 million per patient, which the company considers cost-effective.” While the WSJ indicated that this drug, now marketed as Zolgensma, might be “as low” as $2 million a pop instead of $4 million, that’s still a mind-boggling price tag.
- Glybera, the first million-dollar therapy (more than $1 million USD) at the time, has since been withdrawn.
- The rare disease drug Ravicti reportedly costs more than $600K.
New stem cell and regenerative medicine therapies could be very expensive too. How much do stem cell therapies cost these days?
What about stem cel injections at unproven clinics? What are the price tags there? How many injections does the average patient get? That latter question is important as that amplifies total patient cost.
In past years I’ve done polling on how much people are paying for a stem cell treatment at unproven stem cell clinics and more generally.
Here today I’m revisiting that again to see where things stand in 2019. Please take our polls below and indicate how much you paid per stem cell injection, how many total you’ve gotten, and where you got them.
Thanks!
Very interesting! Do you also have an overview of the costs of treatments performed in the US only?
I have recently heard of this stem cell injections until I saw the cost. I cannot afford this treatment. I have extreme pain way above 10. My pain is muscular in the upper spine from T-2 to T-10. I had this pain for 5 years with appx. 100 cortizone injections that give minimal relief on a good day I get 2 days of relief. I am in need of specific knowledge on how I can be helped. I am desperate.
Just pull them from your own bone marrow. Dr. Shehadi in Columbus Ohio did that with a treatment that was effective beyond expectation. A real neurosurgeon who knows stem cells.
Oct 23 2020 – Diagnosis is adhesive arachnoiditis – Starting to get some discomfort again but I bought another year of pain free mobility. I’m saving up for when I need another booster in about a year I’d guess.
What about the company Mesoblast Ltd. headquartered in Australia, with offices in NY, Melbourne AU, and Singapore. This company has 2 products, precursor MSC derived cells, approved in Japan for use in aGVHD with children refractory to standard therapy, and another for treatment of congestive heart failure. Recently (MESO – Nasdaq) was given orphan drug approval to conduct clinical trials in the US, and fast-track approval. Anyone care to comment on this?
There is another company originally out of Australia named Cynata Therapeutics ( https://www.cynata.com (CYYNF – OTC) ) has MSC derived products for cGVHD. Completed Phase 1, Phase 2 clinical trial to be started 2019 for GVHD.
What about the clinic in Panama, Neil Riodan PhD, are they using real viable umbilical cord derived MSCs ? and the clinic in Puerto Vallarta Mexico, do they use viable umbilical cord MSCs ? Why does the Panama clinic charge $22,000.00 and the Mexico clinic charges $8000.00 ?
Mesoblast Ltd. clinical trial list:
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?cond=&term=Mesoblast&cntry=&state=&city=&dist=
A recent article from a medical group in Japan that used MSCs to treat refractory GVHD as a last choice, with success.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6556259/
I supposedly had stem cells from amniotic cells from Utah, oops just read the last blog. when will the jury be in and how do we find out if my cells were good or bad/ It was Seattle stem cell.
@Audrey, I’m sorry to hear that. I’m not sure how long it will take to clarify the various amniotic situations better. I suppose in some cases it may never happen. How are you feeling?
I never replied to you . the swelling in my went down but now it may be bcoming beck , so where do I find out about Utah cord