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Chinese Firms Ignore Licensing Mandate For Stem Cell Therapy

Posted by timothy on from the dear-leaders dept.

scibri writes "Three months ago, China started to crack down on unlicensed stem cell treatments in the country. But it doesn't seem to have had much effect. Not one clinic has registered as required, and they continue to operate openly, offering unproven treatments for diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's."

7 of 27 comments (clear)

  1. Lack of control or will by Stem_Cell_Brad · · Score: 2

    I dunno. Seems like if China really wanted to "crack down" on something like rogue stem cell injections into dupes, it could do so. Think cultural revolution, Tiananmen square, one child-policy, internets censorship.

    1. Re:Lack of control or will by FhnuZoag · · Score: 2

      No, this is the paradox of China. On the one hand, it's a police state with very reduced sets of rights. On the other hand, China is actually an anarchy. Think about it - it's a state massive in area, but with *half the number of police* (per capita) than the US. And the police there are is mostly concentrated unevenly across the country. Thus, you have a police system capable of producing individual 'examples', if the state wishes, but which is in general wholly incapable of enforcing consistently the full set of laws it has on its books across the whole country.

      Ironically, the cultural revolution is an example of state failure. It was mostly carried out by popular militias, students, etc, and raged for as long as it did because of the inability of the police force to deal with it. In both that case and Tiananmen Square, the situation had to be eventually resolved by the invocation of martial law and the involvement of the military - hardly a sign of the ability of the police force to maintain stability.

  2. Re:Compared to the ANTI-SCIENTIFIC BS HAPPENING HE by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's snake oil. None of the treatments work, or could possibly work. Employing them is about as unscientific as homeopathy; merely more cleverly disguised through the use of a subject that is not well-understood. In most cases, the injected stem cells probably die after a few days.

    --
    Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
  3. Re:Compared to the ANTI-SCIENTIFIC BS HAPPENING HE by interkin3tic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You're misinformed. This is not embryonic stem cell RESEARCH, this is "therapy." As in "Hey, you've heard of stem cells? Well they're MAGIC! For $7000 us dollars, we'll inject you with ES cells and you'll get much better!"

    As in 100% bullshit snake oil. You inject an embryonic stem cell into your blood, and your immune system is going to destroy those cells quickly, since they're not yours. And that's a best case scenario. Worst case scenario, you're immune system is compromised, and they start growing into tumors.

    We are not to a point where ES are useful for therapies these "clinics" are hawking. No one credible disputes this. The people who would will also sell you some ground up rhino horn and various homeopathic medicines.

    ES cells are useful for research. Stem cell research has not stagnated. We haven't outlawed it. There are burdensome restrictions on some types of ES research, but research is progressing. Induced pluripotent stem cells were just discovered (invented?) a few years ago as a direct result of ES research. That is, they take some of your skin cells, treat them, and they become ES like, but they're your cells so your immune system won't attack them. THAT will probably be useful for therapies if we can get the efficiencies high enough.

    Anyway, while we're not spending enough on research and while some of the restrictions put on ES research are political rather than scientific, research on stem cells is progressing here. And these chinese firms are not legit, they're charlatans who should be locked up.

  4. Re:Compared to the ANTI-SCIENTIFIC BS HAPPENING HE by interkin3tic · · Score: 2

    Gene therapy has nothing to do with stem cell therapy, and was not the topic of conversation.

  5. as opposed to america by nimbius · · Score: 2

    where government mandated licenses are routinely applied for, granted, and promptly ignored.
    see your local highway at 5:00, or the local megacorp's environmental policy in action.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
  6. Black clinics by Aggrajag · · Score: 2

    These are the clinics where you will be getting your unlicensed cybernetic enhancements in the future.

    Yet again a Gibson prediction to become reality.