Filipinos warned of stem-cell therapy 'scam'
The Philippine Medical Association (PMA) on Sunday warned Filipinos against availing themselves of "xenogenic" stem cell therapy from foreign doctors who fly into the country and perform the procedure in five-star hotels in Manila.
The doctors’ organisation has already tapped the help of police to look into the scam, which it said tainted the legitimate practice of stem cell, or regenerative, medicine in the country.
Dr Leo Olarte, PMA president and spokesperson of the Philippine Society for Stem Cell Medicine (PSSCM), disclosed that the two medical groups had received complaints from patients and their relatives who had undergone such stem cell procedures allegedly performed in the country by specially flown-in German doctors.
Based on the complaints, Olarte said the patients were asked to check in at a five-star hotel in the capital, where they were injected with animal-based stem cells at around 1 million pesos (Bt709,260) per shot.
“These foreigners are not even licensed to practice medicine in the country and are in violation of the Medical Act of 1959,” Olarte stressed, saying that the autologous adult stem cell treatment – derived from the patient’s own blood, bone marrow or fat – was the only approved stem cell therapy by the Department of Health because it had already been proven across the world as the safest.
