Bioscience firm offers injured athletes stem-cell treatments

 
In September 2011, then-Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning made headlines when he travelled to Europe to receive adult stem cell therapy for a neck injury, and while such therapy was unusual for athletes at the time, reports indicate it is becoming increasingly common.
A story published earlier this week by USA Today reports that “several” current and former pro athletes, including ex-Pittsburgh Steelers running back Merril Hoge, have recently received stem cell treatments at New York-based IntelliCell BioSciences to help repair injuries which would have otherwise required them to undergo surgery and miss considerable playing time.
The treatment they receive is known as “The Soup”, the newspaper reported. For $15,000, pro athletes can receive a mixture of human cells including stem cells derived from their own fat with the hopes that it will be able to repair their damaged knees, elbows, hips, and necks. James Andrews, the foremost sports doctor in the US, even serves as a consultant to the company.
Stem cell treatment is big business these days, and not just in professional sports, University of California-Davis stem cell expert Paul Knoepfler told USA Today. Knoepfler said that there are now nearly 200 stem cell clinics in the US, or four times more than there were five years ago.
But does stem cell therapy work, and is it even legal in the US?
That’s the catch, the newspaper said. Experts interviewed for the piece said that they are not 100 percent certain that it works, or that such treatments are even allowable under current Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations. In 2012, the FDA issued a warning to IntelliCell, telling them that their product should be considered a new drug and be subjected to clinical trials.
IntelliCell founder and chairman Steven Victor told USA Today that is company is following the rules, unlike many of his competitors, because his lab is registered with US regulators. The firm is also being sued by two former employees, claiming that false statements regarding the effectiveness of their product and are manipulating data to make it look more favorable.
Even so, NFL players and other athletes continue to use stem cell treatments in the hopes that it will help them heal faster and avoid surgery. The newspaper reports that an unnamed defensive back sought treatments at a Florida clinic to help a torn tendon above his kneecap heal before the start of training camp, and New York Mets pitcher Bartolo Colon credits the therapy with saving his career by revitalizing his pitching arm. There are several other, similar stories.
Joseph Purita, the doctor who treated Colon and the defensive back, called professional athletes “a good bellwether of whether these really work or not… You have people who are making millions of dollars a year. They’re going to do their research – them and their agents. They’re not going to do something that’s bogus and doesn’t work. Why do you think athletes have embraced this? Because they know it works. It’s as simple as that.”
Hoge said that, thanks to the stem cell treatments, his injured elbow felt “completely better in six weeks versus six months.” NFL linebacker Rolando McClain, who received stem cells from an Alabama clinic to treat a high-ankle sprain after the 2011 season, told USA Today that he felt better overall afterwards and that the injury “healed up faster than what was expected.”
However, the doctor who treated McClain, Jason Williams, no longer provides such services in the US, and moved his clinic to Bogota, Columbia after the FDA took action against him. As he told USA Today, the agency took issue with him using fat-derived cells for his treatment and forced him to sign an agreement that he would no longer provide stem cell therapy in the US. The FDA declined the newspaper’s request to comment on Williams’ case.
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