Here at CIRM, we get calls every day from patients asking us if there are any trials or therapies available to treat their illness or an illness affecting a loved one. Unfortunately, there are some predatory clinics that try to take advantage of this desperation by advertising unproven and unregulated treatments for a wide range of diseases such as Diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

A recent article in the Los Angeles Times describes how one of these predatory stem cell clinics is in a class action lawsuit related to false advertising of 100% patient satisfaction. Patients were led to believe that this percentage was related to the effectiveness of the treatment, when in fact it had to do with satisfaction related to hospitality, hotel stay, and customer service. These kinds of deceptive tactics are commonplace for sham clinics and are used to convince people to pay tens of thousands of dollars for sham treatments.

But how can a patient or loved one distinguish a legitimate clinical trial or treatment from those being offered by predatory clinics? We have established the “fundamental three R’s” to help in making this distinction.

REGULATED

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has a regulated process that it uses in evaluating potential treatments from researchers seeking approval to test these in a clinical trial setting.  This includes extensive reviews by scientific peers in the community that are well informed on specific disease areas. Those that adhere to these regulations get an FDA seal of approval and are subject to extensive oversight to protect patients participating in this trial. Additionally, these regulations ensure that the potential treatments are properly evaluated for effectiveness. The 55 clinical trials that we have currently funded as well as the clinical trials being conducted in our Alpha Stem Cell Clinic Network all have this FDA seal of approval. In contrast to this, the treatments offered at predatory clinics have not gone through the rigorous standards necessary to obtain FDA approval.

REPUTABLE

We have partnered with reputable institutions to carry out the clinical trials we have funded and establish our Alpha Stem Cell Clinic Network. These are institutions that adhere to the highest scientific standards necessary to effectively evaluate potential treatments and communicate these results with extreme accuracy. These institutions have expert scientists, doctors, and nurses in the field and adhere to rigorous standards that have earned these institutions a positive reputation for carrying out their work.  The sites for the Alpha Stem Cell Clinic Network include City of Hope, UCSF, UC San Diego, UCLA, UC Davis, and UC Irvine.  In regards to the clinical trials we have directly funded, we have collaborated with other prestigious institutions such as Stanford and USC.  All these institutions have a reputation for being respected by established societies and other professionals in the field. The reputation that predatory clinics have garnered from patients, scientists, and established doctors has been a negative one. An article published in The New York Times has described the tactics used by these predatory clinics as unethical and their therapies have often been shown to be ineffective.

RELIABLE

The clinical trials we fund and those offered at our Alpha Stem Cell Clinic Network are reliable because they are trusted by patients, patient advocacy groups, and other experts in the field of regenerative medicine. A part of being reliable involves having extensive expertise and training to properly evaluate and administer treatments in a clinical trial setting. The doctors, nurses, and other experts involved in clinical trials given the go-ahead by the FDA have extensive training to carry out these trials.  These credentialed specialists are able to administer high quality clinical care to patients.  In a sharp contrast to this, an article published in Reuters showed that predatory clinics not only administer unapproved stem cell treatments to patients, but they use doctors that have not received training related to the services they provide.

Whenever you are looking at a potential clinical trial or treatment for yourself or a loved one, just remember the 3 R’s we have laid out in this blog.

Regulated, reputable, and reliable.