Doctors facing another scandal?

MANILA -- The medical profession may again be forced to face the limelight after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revoked the corporate registration of a group promoting stem cell therapy allegedly due to a falsified document.

The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) is already checking into the alleged falsification of the papers of the Philippine Society for Stem Cell Medicine (PSSCM). A lawmaker, on the other hand, has filed a resolution urging the House of Representative to probe the matter.

In a five-page order, the SEC revoked the corporate registration of the group for allegedly submitting a fraudulent endorsement from the professional regulator.

“Considering the submission of a falsified PRC endorsement, there is fraud in procurement of respondent’s certificate of registration. The falsified document was relied upon by this Commission in approving the registration application of the respondent,” SEC Acting Director Ferdinand Sales said.

In a separate statement, PRC chairperson Teresita Manzala said: “The Commission directed the PRBOM [Professional Regulatory Board of Medicine] to initiate the filing of a case of unprofessional, dishonorable and unethical conduct against the five incorporators motu proprio. The case is pending before the PRC Legal Division.”

The incorporators are: Leo Olarte, Bu Castro, Rey Melchor Santos, Oscar Tinio and Jose Asa Sabili.

ABS-CBNnews.com is still waiting for a response from Olarte, who is presiding over a meeting of the Philippine Medical Association, which he heads.

Under a memorandum of agreement (MOA), the PRC will evaluate the capacity of a group and later submit an endorsement to the SEC.

Upon SEC’s request, the PRBOM directed the PSSCM incorporators to submit proof of their education, training, certification, and actual practice in the field of stem cell medicine.
Manzala said the PRBOM did not receive any response, thus it placed the group’s application papers on hold.

“After a lapse of several months, the PRBOM received information that the PSSCM was able to obtain a SEC registration, with the PRC endorsement signed by the PRC chairperson. The PRBOM eventually got hold of a copy of the SEC registration,” Manzala said.

She noted that the supposed endorsement used the Philippine Veterinary Law of 2004 instead of Medical Act of 1959 as a reference regulatory law. She also noted her supposed signature even if she had not signed one.

“The PRC chairperson requested the SEC to conduct an investigation mainly on the basis of the forged signature. The SEC served summons on the incorporators, directing them to file their answer to the complaint filed by PRC chairperson Manzala. A reply was never submitted to the SEC. After the lapse of the 15-day period within which respondents should have submitted their reply, the SEC proceeded to promulgate its decision, effectively revoking the registration of the PSSCM,” Manzala said.

Bad light

Meanwhile, Batangas 2nd District Rep. Raneo Abu filed last March 12 a resolution urging the lower House to look into the forgery case.

“[The] foresaid incorporators, who are all professionals, committed a crime and fell short of the ethical standards demanded of them when they forged, or caused to be forged, the signature of PRC chairperson Manzala and thereafter submitted the forged document with the SEC,” Abu said.

The Philippine College of Physicians (PCP) said it has no official statement at this time.

PCP incoming president Anthony Leachon told ABS-CBNnews.com, however, that: “It saddens me really that the medical profession is again disgraced and put in a very bad light. In playful jest but offending and embarrassing, I was asked: Tax cheats! Forgers! What’s next, Doc?”

He clarified that this is only his personal opinion.

While he empathizes with the group of doctors involved, he said: “The accusation is very serious, and the stature of the ‘doctors charged with fraud,’ as the column of Ramon Tulfo of the Philippine Daily Inquirer is entitled, all the more aggravated the problem.”

He noted the incorporators are leaders of the medical profession. “Had they not been the incumbent president and past presidents of the PMA, this issue would not have been as contentious, damaging and notorious. The controversy would have been limited in their personal capacities, and the medical profession would not have been unnecessarily dragged down,” Leachon said.

Doctors

Weeks ago, the medical profession had questioned the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) for putting out advertisements that portrayed doctors as tax cheats. The issue may also merit another probe by lawmakers.

Leachon encouraged the stakeholders to face the issue about the forgery head on, saying it’s time to restore the pride and honor of the medical profession.

“They should meet and confront the issue head-on; don’t take cover behind allegations of ill will on the part of PRC in filing the case. A lawyer himself, Dr. Olarte knows that there is always bias and partiality in every case filed, and a relief against the person/s charged is always sought. The merit of a case is not defined by the motivation, whether fair or foul, in its filing. Truth does,” Leachon said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Stemcell-seeded windpipe patient healthy: report

PARIS - A woman who received a donor windpipe seeded with her own stem cells in groundbreaking surgery five years ago is healthy, said a report Wednesday, hailing progress in tissue engineering.

Donor windpipes are often rejected by the recipient's immune system, while patients also suffer the uncontrolled die-off of cells, called necrosis, and bleeding.

But having the stem cells come from the patient reduces the risk of attack by the immune system.

The procedure performed on Claudia Castillo involved removing the cells from a section of donor windpipe and grafting cartilage cells grown from her own stem cells onto it, as well as other cells taken from a healthy part of her windpipe.

"The recipient continues to enjoy a good quality of life, and has not experienced any immunological complications or rejection of the implanted airway," said a report published in The Lancet medical journal.

Castillo, then 30, had suffered from tuberculosis and received a new lease on life with the transplant.

She was discharged from hospital 10 days after the operation, but researchers said only a long-term follow-up of the patient could show how succesful the operation had been.

Now the surgical team, led by Paolo Macchiarini from Stockholm's Karolinska University Hospital, reports that the patient continues to enjoy "a normal social and working life".

"Moreover, regular testing of lung function, immunological response to the transplant, and other key indicators reveal that the recipient has retained good lung function and has not experienced any immunological complications."

Castillo had suffered some scarring around the graft area, which led to a narrowing of part of the airway and a persistent cough.

This was fixed with a stent -- a scaffold that holds the airway open, said a statement.

"These results confirm what we, and many patients, hoped at the time of the original operation: that tissue engineered transplants are safe and effective in the long term," Macchiarini added.

In a comment on the publication, Alan Russell of the Allegheny Health Network in Pittsburgh said this was "the end of the beginning for tissue engineering".

In 2011, a 36-year-old Eritrean received the world's first transplant of an artificial windpipe seeded with his own stem cells.

Stem cells are immature cells that can differentiate into the specialized cells that comprise and maintain the human body.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Stem-cell therapy wipes out HIV in 2 patients

LONDON - Two men with HIV have been off AIDS drugs for several months after receiving stem-cell transplants for cancer that appear to have cleared the virus from their bodies, researchers reported on Wednesday.

Both patients, who were treated in Boston and had been on long-term drug therapy to control their HIV, received stem-cell transplants after developing lymphoma, a type of blood cancer.

Since the transplants, doctors have been unable to find any evidence of HIV infection, Timothy Henrich of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston told an International AIDS Society conference in Kuala Lumpur.

While it is too early to say for sure that the virus has disappeared from their bodies altogether, one patient has now been off antiretroviral drug treatment for 15 weeks and the other for seven weeks.

Last July Henrich first reported that the two men had undetectable levels of HIV in their blood after their stem-cell treatment, but at that time they were still taking medicines to suppress HIV.

Using stem-cell therapy is not seen as a viable option for widespread use, since it is extremely expensive, but the latest cases could open new avenues for fighting the disease, which infects about 34 million people worldwide.

The latest cases resemble that of Timothy Ray Brown, known as "the Berlin patient", who became the first person to be cured of HIV after receiving a bone marrow transplant for leukaemia in 2007. There are, however, important differences.

While Brown's doctor used stem cells from a donor with a rare genetic mutation, known as CCR5 delta 32, which renders people virtually resistant to HIV, the two Boston patients received cells without this mutation.

"Dr. Henrich is charting new territory in HIV eradication research," Kevin Robert Frost, chief executive officer of the Foundation for AIDS Research, which funded the study, said in a statement.

Scientific advances since HIV was first discovered more than 30 years ago mean the virus is no longer a death sentence and the latest antiretroviral AIDS drugs can control the virus for decades.

But many people still do not get therapy early enough, prompting the World Health Organization to call for faster roll-out of medicines after patients test positive.

Indian generics companies are leading suppliers of HIV drugs to Africa and to many other poor countries. Major Western HIV drugmakers include Gilead Sciences, Johnson & Johnson and ViiV Healthcare, which is majority-owned by GlaxoSmithKline.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Stem cell therapy a cure-all? Not so fast

MANILA, Philippines – It’s supposed to cure various illnesses such as cancer, spinal cord injury and Parkinson’s disease. Is stem cell therapy the cure-all that it is touted to be?

Health Undersecretary Teodoro Herbosa said it is important to note that stem cell treatments are still at the experimental stage.

"The advisory is very clear. This is still an investigative form of therapy. Anecdotal reports are not enough evidence to say there is treatment,” he said in an interview on ANC's Talkback with Tina Palma.

He said there are only two standard stem cell therapies considered effective and acceptable to the medical community.

"To date, I can only name two cases that are considered standard therapy. That is bone marrow transplantation--one for severe cancer, blood cancer and the other one is bone marrow transplantation after chemotherapy for any type of cancer,” he said.

Herbosa said the Department of Health cannot confirm yet if stem cell treatment is indeed effective against certain diseases.

Dr. Tranquilino Elicaño Jr., an oncologist who availed of the treatment in April in Frankfurt, Germany, said stem cell therapy cured his high blood pressure, sugar, cholesterol and uric acid.

He had 12 injections of cells, which came from lambs.

“After a month, I had my blood tests. Everything went down to normal,” Elicaño said.

Elicaño also said he is not taking medication anymore because he has regained his health.

Anecdotal case

Dr. Michelle de Vera, deputy director of the Institute of Personalized Molecular Medicine at The Medical City, said that while Elicaño’s illnesses seem to have been cured, his is still an anecdotal case.

"There's not a whole lot of people with the same kinds of illnesses that are treated with the same kind of treatment. It cannot be generalized yet," she said.

She said out of the 350 patients who underwent stem cell therapy at The Medical City, they had no records of any patient whose condition worsened.

She said some patients did not get any better despite the treatment.

"People have to be very careful in claiming," de Vera added.

Herbosa also clarified that having a younger skin after the therapy is just a side effect, and is not the treatment's main purpose.

Role of media

Herbosa said the media played a role in the sudden popularity of stem cell treatment.

"You have popularized it beyond what the knowledge can actually support," he said.

"It may have side effects that are not yet known."

He said the health department is not regulating the proliferation of stem cell treatment facilities but urged the public to listen to official advisories.

"We won't regulate but we'll make a research protocol, validate it scientifically."

De Vera also said that each case has to be documented and they would have to determine which laboratories are capable of providing the treatment.

source: abs-cbnnews.com

Doctors don't promise cure with stem cell therapy

MANILA, Philippines – Amid the recent warning issued by the Department of Health (DOH) regarding stem cell therapy, doctors who are offering the treatment in the Philippines clarified that they are not promising a cure.

“We are very careful about claiming cure. These days ang dami nagsasalita, nawala ang sakit. All of a sudden siya (stem cell therapy) na ‘yung magic bullet ng buong mundo, like if you get stem cell, you get cured,” said Dr. Michelle de Vera, deputy director of the Institute of Personalized Molecular Medicine at The Medical City.

“Kapag may narinig na ganyan dapat lalo silang mag-ingat. Cure is zero evidence of disease or kung genetic ‘yung disease dapat napalitan ‘yung genes mo. Hindi mangyayari ‘yun at this point," he stressed.

De Vera, an allergologist and immunologist, does stem cell therapy on her patients at The Medical City but he said he believes that the DOH is right in warning patients on stem cell therapy.

“Tama naman na magbigay sila ng warning,I think what their trying to do is regulate stem cell therapy,” the doctor said.

Public advisory

The DOH recently came out with a public advisory on stem cell therapies saying that there is an "observed proliferation of ‘centers’ offering stem cell treatments for medical and aesthetic purpose, and although this technology holds promise, stem cell therapy is not yet part of the standard of care and is considered an investigative procedure for compassionate use."

The DOH further stated that "applications of stem cells for the treatment of malignancies, blood disorders, degenerative diseases (e.g. Alzhimer's), metaboloc diseases (eg diabetes), and immune cell therapy are still under clinical evaluation and study."

“I did not say it doesn't work but it takes a while, a lot of experiments and clinical studies before it is considered a standard of care in medicine,” clarified Health Secretary Enrique T. Ona.

Ona also added in his statement that "the public is strongly advised to avoid stem cell therapies which use the following as sources for stem cells: embryonic stem cells, aborted fetuses, genetically-altered and animal fresh cells."

Not from animals

The Medical City has been offering stem cell treatment since 2005 and had more than 300 patients, most of them for the treatment of cancer.

De Vera explained that they use human stem cells, which come from the bone marrow of the patient or umbilical cord, and warns against stem cells coming from animals like cows or sheep, as well as companies abroad offering a spa-like experience.

"Our choice of sources, we know it's safe kasi galing din sa ‘yo," she said.

But while stem cell therapy is not yet a standard of care, it doesn't mean that it does not work, the doctor said, although she added that doctors who administer it offer no guarantees.

"’Yung iba, sobrang ganda ng effect sa kanila, yung iba naman not so much, it's very personal, very dependent on every person," she said.

De Vera also said that the science behind stem cell therapy is sound, noting that all humans have stem cells which the body uses to heal itself.

"If you give stem cells to a person, pumupunta naman talaga sila sa injured organ, nakaka-repair na talaga sila, hindi na yun theory, meron ebidensya," she explained.

De Vera also claimed that their patients have improved symptoms. "In certain cancer cases with combined standard of care like chemo or radiation therapy, we have made patients cancer-free in terms of markers or imaging for tumors," she added.

According to the doctor, they also do stem cell therapy for aesthetic purposes. "Inherently the stem cell has anti-inflammatory properties, it repairs injury. May evidence that skin has rejuvenated or regenerated. But it doesn't mean hindi ka na tatanda. Cells will eventually age. ‘Di naman infinite ang buhay nya," she said.

Among The Medical City's patients are celebrity couple Albert and Liezl Martinez -- he for aesthetic purposes, while she for breast cancer. Liezel is now reportedly cancer-free.

The DOH said the department will soon issue guidelines for the use of stem cell therapy and the process of licensing facilities offering such services.

"Maybe in two to three weeks," said Ona.

source: abs-cbnnews.com

Abunda to try stem cell therapy for mom

MANILA, Philippines -- "The Buzz" host Boy Abunda is going to Europe this weekend with his mother, who is suffering from dementia and Alzeimer’s disease.

In an interview with ABS-CBN News on Tuesday afternoon, Abunda said he will bring his mother to Germany to try stem cell therapy.

"Ako ay pupunta sa Europe hindi para magbakasyon. Dadalhin ko po ang aking ina para magpagamot sa Germany. Ito po 'yung fresh stem cell therapy. Maganda 'yung dini-diretso na dahil napag-uusapan ito," Abunda said.

While Abunda is in Germany, Kris Aquino will take his place on ABS-CBN's entertainment talk show "The Buzz."

In the interview, Abunda also said he's proud of Aquino, who's now open to doing extreme adventures, while continuing to be a good mother to her two sons.

"Ang daming nagbago kay Kris. May mga bagay na hindi ko inakala na gagawin ni Kris like 'yung diving, zipline at marami pang iba. Natutuwa ako that she has become more open to many things. She has become more adventurous. She has retained being the doting mother that she is pero mas malalim ang halakhak niya ngayon sa buhay. She's just so joyful. Natutuwa ako habang pinapanood ko ang kanyang adventure sa 'KrisTV,'" Abunda said.

Abunda said he's also hoping to do a new project with Aquino.

"I'm hoping na someday ay muli kaming magtagpo sa isang palabas dahil marami ang humihiling na kami ay magsama sa isang palabas. Sigurado ako sa puso ko na kami ay gagawa at gagawa dahil magkadugtong ang aming pusod," he said.

article source: abs-cbnnews.com