The Stem Cell medical Mess: A case study of fraud in the name of treatment

Stem cells are special cells with self-replicating ability, which can participate in cell renewal and tissue repair, bringing new therapeutic prospects to the medical field. However, although stem cell therapy is still in the research stage, it has been exaggerated by criminals, claiming that it can cure various diseases and become a so-called "miracle medicine". Recently, the Changning District People's Procuratorate handled a fraud case involving stem cells. The reporter's investigation found that there are some chaotic phenomena in the field of stem cell medical treatment, revealing the loopholes in the supervision of biological agents in relevant hospital laboratories.

Train station parking lots become "stem cell injection sites" :

In January 2018, Mr. And Mrs. Fang, who were in a hurry, came to Shanghai from other places, and just arrived at Hongqiao Railway Station, they went straight to the parking garage arranged with Mr. He. There, they received cold injections of drugs and their inner longing for children reached its peak.

Mr. And Mrs. Fang have been married for many years and have been unable to have a child as they wish. After examination, Mr. Fang was diagnosed with asthenospermia, so they sought medical advice around, but never saw improvement. In 2017, they saw an online advertisement for surrogacy and contacted a Shanghai-based company whose legal representative was surnamed He.

He brought them the so-called "savior", claiming that infertility can be treated through stem cell injection, and cited a series of success stories as evidence.

Despite the fact that each injection of stem cells costs 150,000 yuan and a course of treatment requires multiple injections, the couple decided to try. He also persuaded Zhang, who was in good health, to receive injections to increase the chances of pregnancy. However, they did not expect the injection site is extremely random, hotel offices, train station parking garage have become "injection points."

After several injections and spending more than 900,000 yuan, Ms. Zhang and her husband confidently went abroad for IVF, but it still ended in failure, and Mr. Fang's health condition did not improve. After realizing that they had been cheated, the couple contacted him for a refund, but they were blocked.

A similar scam also happened to Ms. Lu, who has had two IVF attempts due to premature ovarian failure, but both failed. On her third attempt, she met Ho. He told her that stem cell treatment is the best method at present. So, Ms. Lu paid more than 200,000 yuan to buy two injections. However, after the injection, Ms. Lu's physical condition did not change, only to find that she had been cheated.

The "derived stem cells from a lab" scam:

The key to his patients' trust is that he has created an image of the medical profession. Despite graduating from a university with a degree in law, he started a medical company specializing in illegal surrogacy. The company was founded in 2011. In order to let patients believe the strength of the company, He spent more than 2 million yuan to rent the office building of a five-star hotel in Shanghai, and he also rented a luxury home in Tomson Yipin.

He also defrauded a number of hospitals to provide stem cells. The person in charge of a hospital laboratory in foreign provinces and cities said that the stem cells were provided to He in order to obtain comparative data. The person in charge said that He claimed to have hospital resources and could cooperate with other hospitals to apply to the administrative department for research and clinical research.

The outsourcing company of a top-three hospital in the city also provided stem cells to He, with the purpose of collecting experimental data and reporting the project to the hospital. However, until the crime, He still did not provide any data to the laboratory. The person in charge of the laboratory said that because the stem cells provided to Him are only the cost price, a shot is only 8,000 yuan.

In addition to defrauding hospital laboratories, He also illegally obtained stem cells from doctors. Liu is an orthopedic doctor in a top three hospital in Shanghai, his research direction is stem cell treatment of osteoarthropathy. The stem cells Liu provided to He were all cultured by Liu himself. Although knowing that He Mou did not go through the stem cell treatment of infertility project, direct clinical trials are illegal, but Liu mou in the hospital ward for He mou's patients injected stem cells, and charged 35,000 yuan per injection thank-you fee.

Prosecutors expose fraud under the guise of stem cells:

Prosecutors held an expert demonstration meeting on the efficacy of stem cell technology in treating infertility.

In the field of male reproduction, stem cells, as cells with differentiation potential, are currently limited to mouse experiments, and no relevant results have been reported so far. Using stem cells as a therapeutic means to treat male asthenospermia or oligospermia, its efficacy is unknown, there is no evidence of clinical effectiveness, and there is no relevant research project registration in China.

In the field of female reproduction, stem cell treatment of premature ovarian failure is still in the preliminary stage, the efficacy is also uncertain, and the effect of venous transfusion through peripheral blood is minimal.

In this case, He knew that stem cell technology for sperm and ovarian problems currently have no exact effect, are in the stage of basic research or clinical trials, but he did not have professional stem cell knowledge and without any conditions for research projects, fictional the exact effect of stem cells on reproductive diseases, concealing the risk of stem cell injection.

He committed fraud under the guise of stem cell technology, which has serious practical harm. When He injected stem cells into the victim, He did not even go through the relevant inspection and quarantine, and whether the cells contained bacteria, microorganisms, etc., could not be determined, putting the life safety of the victim in high danger.

Finally, the Changning District People's Court adopted the prosecutor's opinion and found that He had defrauded victims of 1.19 million yuan under the guise of stem cell treatment, and sentenced him to 13 years in prison and fined him 300,000 yuan.

The Changning procuratorate also made procuratorial suggestions to Liu's hospital, hoping that the institution would strengthen the control of clinical research on stem cells. At the same time, hospitals also need to strengthen the management and supervision of medical practitioners in the hospital. The hospital expressed deep remorse for the adverse impact of Liu's behavior and actively made corrections.