Home › Blog › Petition to Change the FDA’s “Your Cells=Drugs” Policy

We’ve been a staunch opponent of the FDA’s cells=drugs initiative as it makes little common nor public health policy sense. Recently, ex-FDA commissioner Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach jumped in through publishing a Wall Street Journal Op Ed and and agreed that the policy was stifling innovation. What’s the issue?  Under certain circumstances, the cells in your body can be classified as drugs. If they are drugs, then you no longer control them, as their use are instead controlled by federal drug laws. As an example, if you’re dying in the ICU and good research shows that using your stem cells may save your life, if those cells are drugs, you don’t have the right to direct your doctor to use your cells to save your life! Somebody (not us) started an on-line congressional letter writing campaign and petition. So take a minute to tell congress that this makes no sense, sign the petition to change the FDA’s “Your Cells=Drugs” policy, and that the cells in your body are yours to control!

See http://www.petition2congress.com/5863/keep-fda-out-all-stem-cell-treatment/

Chris Centeno, MD is a specialist in regenerative medicine and the new field of Interventional Orthopedics. Centeno pioneered orthopedic stem cell procedures in 2005 and is responsible for a large amount of the published research on stem cell use for orthopedic applications. View Profile