Influential Scientific Journal Rips Effort to Loosen Stem Cell Research Rules

The prestigious journal Nature today editorialized against easing federal regulation of stem cell treatments, a major blow to the campaign by the California stem cell agency to speed such therapies to the marketplace.

The headline on the piece said,

"FDA should stand firm on stem cell treatments."

The unsigned editorial declared that those who contend that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is holding back "effective therapies" are peddling a false narrative. Nature declared,

"The claim that regulation is too harsh wrongly implies that the FDA is holding back therapies that work. Critics point to decades of preclinical and clinical work with stem cells and the pipelines of stem-cell treatments. With circular logic, they argue that, because the treatments have not been approved, there is something wrong with the approval system."

The $3 billion California stem cell agency has been lobbying for months for changes in FDA regulation. Randy Mills, president of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine(CIRM) as the agency is formally known, said back in December that "patients are dying" because the FDA is  being "so careful...