Unproven stem cell interventions: A global public health problem requiring global deliberation
By Zubin Master, Kirstin R.W. Matthews, and Mohamed Abou-el-Enein,
Stem Cell Reports
| 06. 08. 2021
The unproven stem cell intervention (SCI) industry is a global health problem. Despite efforts of some nations, the industry continues to flourish. In this paper, we call for a global approach and the establishment of a World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Advisory Committee on Regenerative Medicine to tackle this issue and provide guidance. The WHO committee can harmonize national regulations; promote regulatory approaches responsive to unmet patient needs; and formulate an education campaign against misinformation. Fostering an international dialog and developing recommendations that can be adopted by member states would effectively address the global market of unproven SCIs.
Main text
The unproven stem cell intervention (SCI) industry is used to describe a worldwide, direct-to-consumer market where clinics offer stem cells, stem cell-derived components, such as exosomes and non-stem cell-based cellular products to patients with little to no scientific or clinical basis (Turner, 2020; U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2019). The application of unproven SCIs to consumers has led to multiple patient injuries and deaths (Bauer et al., 2018), and the industry threatens legitimate research efforts (...
Related Articles
By Gregory Laub and Hannah Glaser, MedPage Today | 08.07.2025
In this MedPage Today interview, Leigh Turner, PhD, a professor of health policy and bioethics at the University of California Irvine, unpacks the growing influence of stem cell clinics and the blurred line between medicine and marketing. He explains how...
By Gina Kolata, The New York Times | 06.20.2025
A single infusion of a stem cell-based treatment may have cured 10 out of 12 people with the most severe form of type 1 diabetes. One year later, these 10 patients no longer need insulin. The other two patients need...
By Christina Jewett, The New York Times | 06.05.2025
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently declared that he wanted to expand access to experimental therapies but conceded that they could be risky or fraudulent.
In a podcast with Gary Brecka, who describes himself as a longevity expert...
By Mike Baker, The New York Times | 02.25.2025
As investigators struggled for weeks to find who might have committed the brutal stabbings of four University of Idaho students in the fall of 2022, they were focused on a key piece of evidence: DNA on a knife sheath that...
