Three men involved in a scheme to sell stem cell therapies to people desperate for cures have been arrested by the FBI, with a fourth suspect still at large.
Fox News Health is reporting that three of the four men were arrested within the last 10 days after indictments were issued charging them with 39 counts of mail fraud and unlawfully manufacturing, distributing and selling stem cells and stem cell procedures not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
One of the men arrested was Vincent Dammai, 40, of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, was identified as a researcher at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dammai is said to have used university facilities to create stem cells without obtaining permission from the FDA or university officials.
Francisco Morales, 52, of Brownsville, Texas, is charged with falsely saying that he was a medical doctor. He operated a clinic in Brownsville that specialized in using stem cells to treat incurable diseases.
An FBI press release says: “Morales and the others manufactured, distributed and used stem cells produced from umbilical cord blood to perform procedures not approved by the FDA to treat persons suffering from cancer, amytrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), multiple sclerosis (MS) and other autoimmune diseases.”
Also charged is Alberto Ramon, 48, of Del Rio Texas. According to a 19-page indictment unsealed last week, Ramon, a licensed midwife, obtained umbilical cord blood from mothers who had given birth. He then sold the blood to a Scottsdale, Arizona company called Global Laboratories, whose owner was convicted in August of selling unauthorized stem cell products across state lines. Global Laboratories sent the tissue to Dammai, who used university facilities to derive cord blood stem cells and then sent the cells back to Global.
A fourth man, Lawrence Stowe, 58, of Dallas remains at large and a warrant has been issued for his arrest. The indictment charges that Stowe, who sometimes referred to himself as "Dr. Larry Stowe" "marketed, promoted, and sold stem cells" for the treatment of several diseases through front companies.
Stowe was profiled on the CBS News program 60 Minutes in 2010 which featured an ALS patient who claimed Stowe told him his stem cell therapy could reverse and cure the terminal disease. There is no cure for ALS and no therapy cam reverse its course which claims the lives of most patients within five years of diagnosis.
According to the indictment, "Stowe marketed, promoted and sold stem cells along with other drug and biological products for the treatment of cancer, ALS, MS and Parkinson’s Disease that had not been reviewed or approved by the FDA. Stowe operated several entities, including The Stowe Foundation and Stowe Biotherapy Inc., through which he allegedly marketed and sold these products."
Cory Nelson, special agent in charge of the FBI's San Antonio office said their investigation "identified a scheme whereby the suffering and hopes of victims in extreme medical needs were used and manipulated for personal profit. . . . As a result of this fraudulent scheme, the public was mislead into believing that stem cells and other drug and biological products sold by the defendants had been approved by the FDA to treat cancer, ALS, MS, and Parkinson's disease."
Dr. Craig Klugman, a medical ethicist at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, told Fox that stem cell treatments appeal to people who are desperate for cures.
"They are using a new marketing tool to make you think this is something very futuristic and cutting edge," Klugman said. "I would be very skeptical of anything claiming to have stem cells in it because, at least in the United States, there is nothing commercially approved for use with stem cells in it."
This includes products such as wrinkle creams or wrinkle removers that contain stem cells.
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Photo of Dr. Lawrence Stowe is by the Associated Press
