Three recent media pieces on unproven, for-profit stem cell clinics paint an unflattering picture of this industry. At the intersection of these pieces is the clinic “treatment” consisting of fat stem cells (being manufactured as in a screenshot at right from a clinic YouTube video), a product the FDA has indicated is most often going […]
New stem cell clinic insights from trio of critical media pieces Read More »
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 »
The FDA issued a historic statement today promising to more clearly define its regulatory policies on stem cell therapies and to take strong action on some stem cell clinics that it views as “bad actors”. I’ve never the FDA use such clear-cut language before. I give big kudos to new FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb. It already
Six questions as FDA takes new shot at stem cell clinics Read More »
Is there a proliferating stem cell fake news problem in the biotech world? More broadly, the SEC is cracking down on the mess that is fake biotech news, but what about fake news on stem cell biotechs more specifically? Already in the past year I’ve seen examples of possible stem cell fake news. Hyped press releases (PR)
Stem cell fake news driving biotech investors or vice versa…or what? Read More »
Do three blinded US Stem Cell clinic patients with major or complete vision loss constitute a significant adverse outcome? I would say so and a new paper details how this happened apparently at a particular publically-traded South Florida stem cell clinic business. You can see the damaged retinas of one such patient below in an image
NEJM paper links 3 blinded patients to US Stem Cell clinic 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 »
Stem cell biotech company Bioheart ($BHRT) has had a rough 2015 so far. Could this year be a decisive, negative tipping point for the company? It has a number of clinical trials going, but from my view things seem increasingly uncertain. An oddity amongst stem cell biotechs, Bioheart and its leadership have at times seemed to toy
Bioheart on the edge in 2015? Read More »
As part of its stepped up approach to unproven stem cell marketing, the FDA issued another warning letter to a perinatal (birth-related) stem cell supplier. It’s interesting to see the FDA doing more specifically about suppliers and not just focusing on clinics. It seems that in some subsectors of the stem cell arena that certain
FDA warns another perinatal stem cell supplier Stemell Read More »
It’s been less than a year since the FDA sued for a permanent injunction against a major stem cell clinic firm in Florida, but there has been much back and forth in court filings in the lawsuit between them and the firm, US Stem Cell. Now the case is with the judge. My prediction remains
My take as a biologist on US Stem Cell “natural” claim in federal court case endgame Read More »