W. Carlos M. used to be in a wheelchair. After two years of stem cell therapy that he believes reversed his condition, Costa Rican authorities are closing down the center where he received treatment. The center has a permit to store adult stem cells, but not to perform the treatment M. received.
And now we don’t know what will happen, what reaction will have. All the people I know, every single patient has had positive reactions to the treatment. Cases with three year inability, paraplegia, and they are starting to feel their legs. We now feel truly abandoned and disappointed by the decision that was taken.
The Costa Rican Health Ministry says the Institute of Cellular Medicine is not following standard procedures in medical clinical trials. Such trials use a control group, giving a fake therapy to rule out the placebo effect.
Health Minister Maria Luisa Avila, "The people in charge of the center should have developed protocols, investigation protocols which are viewed by bioethics committees who have an external consultant review things that are doing well, because mother-cell treatments are not approved for routine usage in any serious country. This is still a therapy which is still being investigated.”
The center was using master cells found throughout the body that give rise to many different tissues and blood cells. That had become standard treatment for certain genetic diseases. The clinic’s owner told Reuters he closed the clinic and admitted that some of his treatments had not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Andrew B, Reuters.
