Healthy Skepticism Library item: 18202

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Roehr B
Researchers try to protect patients from stem cell charlatans
BMJ 2010 Jun 18; 340:
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/340/jun18_1/c3271

Abstract:

The International Society for Stem Cell Research has launched a patient education website “to smoke out the charlatans” who prey upon desperately ill people and their families, said Irving Weissman.

“I don’t think that any society has ever done this before,” the Stanford University researcher and president of the society said in addressing the opening of their annual meeting on 16 June, in San Francisco.

The problem is large and growing. A recent web search identified more than 200 practitioners or clinics making claims for stem cell cures, most of the operations are located in developing countries where regulatory oversight is weak. One location in China claims to have treated over 8000 people, generating over $200m (£137m; 165m) in revenue.

The society’s new website, www.closerlookatstemcells.org, offers basic education about stem cells. It says that a reputable clinical trial will have a body of scientific literature behind it; will be scrutinised . . .