Early in 2016, we started hearing about patient allegations of having been blinded in Florida by at least one stem cell business and several allegations seemed linked to a publicly-traded company called U.S. Stem Cell, Inc. (USRM). In turn, there have been a number of lawsuits involving USRM, including one filed just a few months …
Sen. Grassley asks tough questions for FDA on U.S. Stem Cell, blinded women Read More »
A new stem cell clinic lawsuit has popped up and this one, like some others, relates to a patient alleging vision loss due to a non-FDA approved stem cell offering and involves U.S. Stem Cell, Inc. (formerly called Bioheart). American stem cell clinics market direct-to-consumer stem cell offerings for a whole medical dictionary’s worth of …
New lawsuit against U.S. Stem Cell also alleges blindness Read More »
Concerns over stem cell clinics allegedly causing blindness or other vision problems have been increasing in 2016. If this is in fact happening, the extra sad part of this is that some clinics have claimed that they are doing the opposite: improving vision in patients. What are the concerns? Earlier this year a publicly-traded stem …
2nd lawsuit alleging a U.S. stem cell clinic caused blindness Read More »
Have I got a stem cell for you! We hear a lot about the dangers of an increasing number of rogue stem cell clinics, but another critical trend has flown more under the radar: direct marketing of stem cells to doctors. This is big business and arguably one of the biggest threats to patients. In …
I was interviewed for the cool UK pod blog, Pod Delusion. Listen here to our frank discussion on stem cells covering most of the most interesting and controversial topics.
For the first time to my knowledge, patients have sued a dubious stem cell clinic (RNL Bio) for fraud. As one stem cell expert has put it (see below), now there is “blood in the water”. RNL Bio of Korea has reportedly (hat tip to Leigh Turner) just been sued for fraud by patients related to stem …
Korean stem cell clinic sued by patients in U.S. for fraud Read More »
For a long time many of us in the stem cell field have been worried about dubious stem cell treatments, so-called ‘stem cell tourism’. How do we stop it or at least fight back to keep people safe and help them avoid losing what is often their life savings? Many activities related to stem cell …
The ultimate antidote to stem cell tourism in the U.S. Read More »
As we have blogged before, there are a host of different beliefs about embryonic stem cell research and about when life begins. This diversity of perspectives is sprinkled across the globe. Too often in the U.S. people take an ethnocentric view of this question, believing that everyone else should think the same as they do. …
A perspective on U.S. embryonic stem cell research from Israel Read More »
I wrote a few weeks ago about a firm called RGCC or Research Genetic Cancer Center, which sells what I see as an unproven RNA therapy to clinics throughout the US. The approach is called supportive oligonucleotide therapy or SOT. After buying it from RGCC, the clinics then sell SOT injections for Lyme disease, other …
US clinics selling unproven RGCC cell therapies in addition to SOT Read More »
Exactly ten years ago today, on January 29, 2014, I wrote about two new Nature papers on so-called STAP cells. The papers claimed that stress alone could convert regular non-stem cells into some of the most powerful stem cells. More specifically, the authors claimed to make pluripotent stem cells similar to iPS cells this way. …