California Setting Stage for Crackdown on Dubious Stem Cell Clinics

The California stem cell agency, state regulators and lawmakers are taking aim at the more than 100 dubious, unregulated "stem cell" clinics now operating in the Golden State.

The goal is to curb clinics that are using what they describe as stem cells in treatments costing thousands of dollars but that have not been tested  scientifically. Lawsuits have been filed around the country alleging damage to patients that includes blindness.

Art Torres, vice chairman of the state stem cell agency, is now  working with lawmakers to formulate legislation that is expected to be introduced by the end of January.

At the same time, the State Medical Board, which licenses and regulates physicians, has chartered a task force to look into the the growing business.

Earlier this fall, Torres told the governing board of

Kevin Mullin, LA Times photo

the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), as the agency is formally known, that he was engaged with Assemblyman Kevin Mullin, D-San Mateo, on a bill.

Torres, a former state lawmaker, said the legislation is expected to involve certification of clinics by a state department. He said, 

"It involves a number of issues which we (CIRM) really can't be involved with in terms of licensing, but we certainly can be involved with the parameters and the distinctions that we ought to raise as to what constitutes an appropriate stem cell clinic in California."

The Medical Board is scrutinizing the promotional practices and harm caused by the clinics with the intent of crafting regulations to curb abuses.  

The board's starting point is a report by the Federation of State Medical Boards, which says,

"There is reasonable concern about a growing number of providers and clinics in the United States that are undermining the field. Such providers and clinics have been known to apply, prescribe or recommend therapies inappropriately, over-promise without sufficient data to support claims, and exploit patients who are often in desperate circumstances and willing to try any proposed therapy as a last resort, even if there is excessive cost or scant evidence of efficacy."

Paul Knoepfler, a UC Davis stem cell scientist who has long been involved in examination of dubious clinics, has reported that at least 100 such clinics exist in California. 

Writing on his blog Nov. 30, Knoepfler said,

"Broadly, it may be going rapidly from the best of times to the worst of times for unproven stem cell clinics in the U.S., which would be a very good thing for patients and the stem cell field, if it actually happens. We’ll see."