This week Costa Rican Health Ministry banned experimental stem cell treatment and ordered Institute of Cellular Medicine to cease treating spinal injuries and degenerative diseases
Back in Oct, 2009, we wrote how suddenly there was major increase of foreigners heading to Costa Rica for stem cell treatments that involved everything from ailments, to bone fractures, to multiple sclerosis.
The reason was simple; when people heard that, the International Society of Stem Cell research claiming, US clinical trials were “ambiguous” and treatments based on anecdotal success could be exploitative, it slammed the US doors on hope.
So when Costa Rica doctors offered the groundbreaking treatments to medical tourism, free from scrutiny, it drew thousands of westerners as well as locals.
With this increase, Costa Rican legislators started to put the finishing touches on a law to promote and regulate adult stem cell research and treatment across a spectrum of diseases. For a while it looked like the government was encouraging these medical professionals.
Unfortunately, this week things changed. The Costa Rican Health Ministry banned experimental stem cell treatment and ordered a client, Institute of Cellular Medicine to cease treating spinal injuries and degenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis and diabetes.
Stem Cell research and treatment has always raised ethical issues. The use of embryonic or foetal stem cells in the US is not approved for commercial use by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A Bush administration-era ban on research has been reversed, but in the US the science remains experimental.
In a statement by Ileana Herrera, the head of Costa Rica’s health ministry’s research council, “There was no evidence that the removal and reinjection of stem cells was effective or safe,” adding, “If [stem cell treatment’s] efficiency and safety has not been proven, we don’t believe it should be used. As a health ministry, we must always protect human beings.”
The ministry said the clinic, which opened in 2006, would ONLY be allowed to store adult stem cells extracted from patients’ own fat tissue, bone marrow and donated umbilical cords, but COULD NOT perform treatments. Medical experts in Costa Rica had warned that such treatments, lacking clinical trials and based on anecdotal cases, were reckless and potentially exploitative.
Patients of the clinic, (those that reported improvements in their conditions) were outraged, because it blocked, hope. “I think it’s ridiculous,” said Cranston Rodgers, a 67-year-old retiree from Las Vegas who was treated at the clinic three years ago for an aggressive case of multiple sclerosis. “I know what it did for me. I haven’t used a cane or a scooter since.”
After spending $300,000 on drug and holistic treatments in the US, Holly Huber considered the $30,000 treatment in Costa Rica a worthwhile gamble. “I didn’t have anything to lose the 37-year-old Californian said, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She added that she began feeling her feet for the first time in a year three weeks after being injected with stem cells harvested from abdominal fat.
In a statement from their website, Cell Medicine, claimed it had left Costa Rica because of “unpredictable and arbitrary” regulations and would focus on expanding its Panamanian operations. Their Panama clinic, which is a lot larger and similar will remain open.
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