US FDA wins major victory against fat stem cell clinic chain
(CNN) - The US Food and Drug Administration won a major legal victory in its ongoing effort to crack down on clinics marketing bogus and potentially hazardous stem cell products. A picture of a patient’s eye one week after receiving stem cell injections from U.S. Stem Cell in 2015 shows widespread retinal hemorrhages. (Thomas Albini) On Monday, a federal judge in Miami granted the FDA an injunction to prevent the Florida-based US Stem Cell Clinic from offering treatments designed to create stem cells from body fat and administering them intravenously or directly into the spinal cords of patients to treat Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other serious conditions. Over the last four years, FDA investigators documented evidence that the clinic failed to establish and follow appropriate procedures to prevent microbiological contamination of products which it said put patients at risk for infections. US Stem Cell Clinic...