Stem Cell News Blog

Hundreds of desperate British patients have spent up to £30,000 on unproven stem cell treatments in China and elsewhere, an investigation by The Sunday Times has found.

One treatment, popular among the parents of blind babies, has been branded “child abuse” by a leading British stem cell researcher because of its possible risks.

The Chinese company selling the stem cell therapy admitted this weekend that it had not yet conducted clinical trials of the treatment. The firm, Beike Biotech, also admitted that it could not say how many children had experienced improvements.

A number of British parents have resorted to launching fundraising appeals around the country to pay for the therapy abroad. The stem cell treatment offered by the Chinese company has not yet won regulatory approval in the UK.

Professor Pete Coffey of the Institute of Ophthalmology at University College London said there is no medical evidence that the method offered by Beike Biotech works and added that the babies’ health could be put at risk.

Coffey, who is running a trial with Pfizer to treat blindness with stem cells, said there is no medical evidence of improvement. “We don’t know if there have been any side effects,” he said.

“There is a set criteria for the way clinical trials should be done, but this is obviating all the rules. There is no evidence from animals, no evidence published and no evidence about safety. I would go as far as saying that this is child abuse.”

The parents of 11-month-old Dylan Manifold, from Liverpool, who are currently at Qingdao People’s hospital in eastern China, have raised about £30,000 to have stem cells from umbilical cord blood injected into the veins of their infant. They accept there is no guarantee that the treatment will work but say they felt they had to seize the chance, however slight.