For the first time to my knowledge, a patient has sued an American stem cell clinic, US Stem Cell, alleging damage to her eyes from fat stem cell injections. Just a few months ago, there was a report of a Japanese patient who sued a fat stem cell clinic and won, but I’m not aware […]
US stem cell clinic sued for injection into eyes Read More »
Editor’s note: this is a guest post on the US stem cell environment. By Heather Main I moved to the San Diego from Australia in August 2015, and Paul asked me if I could write something on my first impressions of doing science in the US, as opposed to other countries I have worked/studied in
First impressions of the US stem cell environment from an Aussie Read More »
Tennis superstar Rafael Nadal, 28, is following in the dubious footsteps of many sports stars turning to questionable stem cell “treatments” to relieve what ails them and potentially extend their careers. Nadal (pictured at right in image from Wikipedia) will receive what appears to be a laboratory-grown stem cell product from Dr. Angel Ruiz-Cotorro. ESPN
Tennis Star Nadal to Get Dubious Stem Cell Treatment Read More »
When bioethicist Arthur Caplan talks about stem cells, people pay close attention and for good reason. Caplan has provided important perspectives on the stem cell field over the years. For example, you can see a guest post on this blog here about human cloning. However, in my post today I respectfully discuss how I disagree with several parts of this week’s piece by
Arthur Caplan Article on Bogus Stem Cell Research: Some Different Views Read More »
How do dubious stem cell clinics get patients in the door to make money? In part they do this via the Internet via the clinics’ own websites. There are also patient websites, some secret, which may serve ad recruitment tools for specific clinics. A more general tactic may be the use of so-called “recruiter-patients”. There
Recruiter-patients: how common & corrupt is this practice at US stem cell clinics? Read More »
Over the years on a fairly regular basis I’ve been contacted by patients seeking information about stem cell treatments and stem cell clinics. Note that patients may want to check out my stem cell patient guide, which has key questions and advocates for a critical, skeptical view of these offerings. But in 2012 the number
Dubious stem cell clinics increasing and at epidemic levels Read More »
Last year then NY Yankees pitcher, Bartolo Colon, received a dubious stem cell treatment in his home Dominican Republic. Colon seemed to bounce back from an injury after the stem cell treatment and some attributed this to his stem cell treatment. Other famous athletes including other pitchers and NFL players have since then also gotten similar
I keep seeing these eerie parallels between thalidomide & dubious stem cell treatments. What’s the first rule of medicine again? Do no harm! Rushing new medicines such as stem cell treatments to patients without appropriate preliminary studies to try to make money is like playing Russian Roulette with patients. Some of the time, everything will
Eerie parallels between thalidomide & dubious stem cell treatments Read More »
A while back, I did a post on the FDA audit report of Celltex and I think I made a mistake in the title of that post: Surprising FDA audit report of Celltex a blow to for-profit adult stem cell industry. What I meant was the dubious stem cell industry. The title I used was too vague
As I first reported, the FDA conducted a two-week audit of Texas adult stem cell firm, Celltex, sometime in April. Today I received a copy of the so-called “483 report” of that audit. It is basically a summary of problematic issues that the FDA says need to addressed. The FDA report is cause for some
Surprising FDA audit report of Celltex a blow to dubious stem cell clinics Read More »