The FDA’s stem cell meeting wrapped up today on day two with a diverse group of individual speakers. A series of patient testimonials today in favor of clinics was one thing that stood out. You can read my take of day one and the account of Jeanne Loring who was at the meeting. I’ve noted that on …
Report on day 2 of FDA stem cell meeting: patients, researchers, & more Read More »
I often am asked if there are ongoing or possible upcoming lawsuits against stem cell clinics. Doing periodic searches such as on Google is one way to learn more about whether there are stem cell legal cases out there. Recently I did such searches for a variety of terms including “stem cell lawsuit” and “stem …
Possible class action lawsuit against stem cell clinics Read More »
Last week a team led by John Rasko of the University of Sydney published a very important stem cell clinic study also in Cell Stem Cell. Thus, there have now been two new reports on the state of the stem cell clinic industry both here in the U.S. and more globally. Leigh Turner and I published …
Important Rasko team paper on global distribution of stem cell clinics Read More »
Some recent developments in the stem cell world are worth a look. I’ve posted the headlines verbatim and the links to some of these stem cell news bites below. NIH Plans To Lift Ban On Research Funds For Part-Human, Part-Animal Embryos. NIH may allow funding of human-animal chimeras in certain cases. Stem cell ‘tourists’ flock to …
Stem cell news bites: chimeras, Australian clinics, organoids & more Read More »
There has been relatively limited response from clinics themselves to the Cell Stem Cell paper that Leigh Turner and I published recently on the scope of the stem cell clinic industry in the U.S. We found 570 stem cell clinics and there could easily be 50-100 more that escaped our search methods or that have …
Some stem cell clinics respond to Cell Stem Cell paper with ‘not me, them’ Read More »
The journal Nature published an excellent editorial earlier this week on stem cell oversight and stem cell clinics. The piece, entitled ” FDA should stand firm on stem-cell treatments. US regulators must regain the upper hand in the approval system” struck just the right balance. It correctly supported the FDA’s data-centered approach to stem cell oversight and …
Perspectives: Nature editorial on stem cell oversight & clinics gets it right Read More »
What a strange Internet world we live in these days, huh? Leigh Turner and I just published a piece in Cell Stem Cell on the state of the US stem cell clinic market finding 570 clinics and this paper has drawn a lot of media attention including a piece in Scientific American (Sciam). I’m glancing …
Dang: ad for stem cell clinic @Sciam article on our paper on stem cell clinics Read More »
My colleague Leigh Turner and I today published a new paper in Cell Stem Cell documenting for the first time the American stem cell clinic arena in a comprehensive way, which we found as of February has a remarkable 570 clinic locations via 351 businesses. These numbers are way beyond the predictions of most researchers …
New paper shows huge American stem cell clinic industry: 570 locations Read More »
I am often critical of for-profit stem cell clinics on this blog for numerous reasons. For instance, one thing that concerns me greatly about these clinics is that they charge patients to get experimental “treatments” that have not been proven to be safe or effective. But as some patients have pointed out to me over the …
Huge clinical trial patient fees allowed by FDA at times, details often secret Read More »
There’s been an interesting and diverse discussion going on here on this blog lately related to some stem cell translational things including a stem cell clinic operating in Sacramento (see 50+ comments on that post) and then more recently on a new paper from the Centeno clinic. .@pknoepfler Did most (or all) participants in this study pay …
Do for-profit stem cell studies have inherent potential biases? Read More »