It’s discouraging to see many media outlets posting sponsored content on stem cells and I never thought I’d see such an advertorial in The Atlantic. Yet there it was!
Sponsored content on stem cells from The Atlantic
Here it is: Stem Cell Transplantation’s New Frontiers, The Atlantic. Usually sponsored content on stem cells is junky. Most often we see such stuff focused on promoting stem cell clinics.
Such material can be essentially PRs made to look like news items or spontaneous news-related interviews.
Other times, the material is more in a gray zone. For example, I called out Nature for an advertorial on MUSE cell research. It eventually was taken down. As many of you may recall, I’m not convinced MUSE cells even exist naturally in the human body.
In this case, the actual article, which is an interview with Alice Bertaina, M.D., Ph.D. of Stanford Medicine Childrens, is an interview that is an ad. The actual content isn’t misleading, but it’s just that it’s essentially an ad made to look just like other content at the magazine.
I wonder whether The Atlantic would take a sponsored content from an unproven stem cell clinic? I hope not. Other media outlets like The LA Times and The AP have posted essentially PRs for stem cell clinics. I’m not sure that readers always realize that these are paid ads.
This recent stem cell interview piece even has a survey at the end about how maybe it changed your feelings about Stanford Medicine Childrens.
Maybe part of what is going on is traditional media trying to find ways to survive, which I’m sympathetic to, but sponsored content about therapies has risks, even if it’s not related to unproven clinics.
More recommended reads
- The peptide craze sweeping America has a fan in RFK Jr, Science-Based Medicine. Kennedy is soon likely to force the FDA to look the other way and allowing popular peptide compounding again. Compounding pharmacies appear to have major sway over him. None of these popular peptides are proven safe or effective for anything. It’s this weird paradox that somehow popular peptide drugs will be treated differently than more typical drugs.
- Speaking of peptides, we have this new research on an approved peptide drug that we all have heard so much about: Semaglutide ameliorates osteoarthritis progression through a weight loss-independent metabolic restoration mechanism, Cell Metabolism. One of the big surprises here is that the positive impacts reportedly were independent of weight loss. This paper includes both mouse and human clinical trial data, which is a big plus. Maybe the drug could lead to chondroblast activation. The paper does mention a shift in chondrocyte metabolism and more active chondrocytes can also stimulate more matrix growth.
- In unprecedented move, giant monkey research center may become a primate sanctuary University votes to consider ending all studies at Oregon National Primate Research Center. But cost and feasibility are still in doubt, Science. This would be a huge change linked in part to NIH emphasizing non-animal models.
- BridgeBio drug for genetic cause of dwarfism succeeds in key study, STAT News.
It’s an ad posing as an informational article. It’s designed to fool the reader and I object to that.
Dear Paul,
She’s talking about HSCs. Not MSCs.
Yes, HSCs. I never said she was talking about MSCs.