My Message to Reporters Using Researchers as Sources that Back the FDA

LLL6521

Member
Here is my concern with many news articles defending the FDA's position on adult stem cell treatments and not scrutinizing their sources mostly University Researchers.
Many of the PhDs/Researchers used as sources are not medical doctors. Medical doctors have different procedural protocols when conducting clinical trials which are based on patients’ unique conditions and the level of risks tied to the treatments considered. These new medical procedures usually fall under medical state boards’ jurisdiction and the discretion of medical doctors not researchers.
Second and most importantly, many researchers are inherently compromised when stem cell medical treatments compete against their patented royalties and their continuous funding of stem cell research grants. Just like the large pharmaceutical companies, the progression and advancement of SCTs within the realm of possibilities can replace billions of dollars in drug sales, a frightening scenario for many of them. This potential threat conflicts with the interests of researchers, universities, non-profit organizations, and most of all the FDA’s control of the drug market. There is a growing collaboration between industry and researchers, since the enactment of the Bayh–Dole Act or Patent and Trademark Law Amendments Act of 1980. “The Act started out with the best of intentions; by clearing away the thicket of conflicting rules and regulations at various federal agencies, it set out to encourage universities to patent and license results of federally financed research. For the first time, academicians were able to profit personally from the market transfer of their work. For the first time, academia could be powered as much by a profit motive as by the psychic reward of a new discovery.”1
This is why many of the researchers tied to patents and government grants continue to disseminate false information to purposely stall the progression of autologous stem cell treatments. They masquerade under their altruistic intentions of protecting the interests of the general public, when in fact their motives are to protect their own interests. Many have claimed that autologous stem cell treatment can possibly cause cancerous tumors, when in fact, no published findings or evidence has been presented to prove that autologous stem cells manipulated within proper protocols cause cancer. We have posed the challenge in the past, and the only feedback we get “that certain contaminants in the manipulation field can cause undifferentiated stem cells to become tumors.” Medical doctors deal with contaminants in their everyday life from washing hands and sterilizing. Medical doctors are not strangers in preventing contaminations.
Physicians have in their hands a remarkable way to deal with those that are frail, terminal, and disabled. All these patients want as the highest stakeholders are the rights to their own stem cells. We implore you to check patent registries and lists of recipients that receive federal grants as sources. This inherently poses as a conflict of interest, unless you balance your report with medical doctors or scientists that hold apposing views. Also, you may want to consider reporting how autologous stem cell treatments are not the same as chemical drugs, and why these stem cell procedures are unjustly being singled out as dangerous and unproven. Here is fact-check of autologous SCTs:

1 – There is no vested interest to research autologous stem cell treatments as a drug when they cannot be bottled or mass produced for profit.
2 – The competition of individualized medical procedures that can potentially revolutionize medicine will ultimately replace various marketed drugs.
3 – Current and future stem cell FDA clinical trials are endangered becoming impractical.
3 – State medical boards have successfully approved riskier procedures in the past like open heart surgery, allogeneic transplants, etc.
4 – There are over 8,000 stem cell treatments performed around the world with only two reported deaths.
5 – Historically, many FDA approved drugs have resulted significantly worse adverse effects.

Therefore, why focus on autologous stem cell treatments as being dangerous, unproven, and justifiably regulated as a drug?

Source: 1 The New York Times: When Academia Puts Profit Ahead of Wonder by JANET RAE-DUPREE, September 7, 2008
 

LLL6521

Member
I wanted to post this message on the forum, because if a researcher claims that he does not have any patents, hence he or she “does not have a conflict of interest.” I say they do. Why, because most of his research funding comes from the patented findings universities are granted plus the federal grants. As long as an employer continues to receive millions from government grants and patents, there is a conflict of interest. It is the same thing as an employee who gets a salary from company profits, so the logic follows - no profit, then no salary or a job.
 

barbara

Pioneer Founding member
LLL6521 - You are spot on as usual. You are one that does your homework. If only the media was as diligent. Thank you for sharing this. You are to be commended for taking the time to point out the inaccuracies and omissions whenever and wherever you can. It's so important to get the message out to the media and you do that at every opportunity.

Members and readers - Please read what LLL6521 has written. You can use his points when responding to online articles you may see. We have to continue to hit the media in order to change course in this country. I can't begin to tell you how important it is. If you see articles that the author has failed to vet the experts or spokespeople quoted or if the article does not present both sides to an issue, please post them on this forum. That way comments can be sent to the author and we can also do some investigating of our own to see if there are conflicts of interest that exist. Just because someone is a researcher, doctor, "expert", doesn't mean that they don't have their own dog in the race they are protecting. Not vetting these sources is what LLL6521, myself and others are trying to put a stop to.
 
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