China stops unapproved stem cell treatments

Don Durfee & Sally Huang. China stops unapproved stem cell treatments. Reuters, BEIJING | Tue Jan 10, 2012 5:52am EST.

"China has ordered a halt to all unapproved stem cell treatments and clinical trials, state media reported on Tuesday, as Beijing seeks to rein in the largely untested stem cell therapies now on offer across the country.

The Ministry of Health will stop accepting new applications for stem cell programs, a ban that will last until July and comes as China begins a one-year program to regulate the sector better, Xinhua cited a ministry spokesman as saying.

A growing number of hospitals and clinics in large cities in China have been offering stem cell therapies for treatment of diseases ranging from cancer and Alzheimer's to spinal cord injuries, treatments that are backed by little or no scientific evidence and which are considered at best experimental......."



"This is excellent news and will hopefully stop unproven stem cells therapies for MSers in China. I sincerely hope the rest of the world would adopt this policy as well. The only place for stem cell treatments for MS are within well-designed clinical trials. The Stem Cell Charlatans should be stopped; all the do is create false hope, rip MSers off and bring the filed into disrepute. The latter is a major problem for serious scientists working in the field."

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