Annals of the Institute for Orgonomic Science

The latest issue of this important journal is now available. It is an engaging and eminently readable publication dedicated to the science of orgonomy and the work of Wilhelm Reich, M.D.

Since 1984 the Annals of the Institute for Orgonomic Science has been providing information to the public on a wide range of topics. They include: orgonomic therapy; childrearing; education; social orgonomy; studies of biogenesis; and evidence for the biological and physical effects of Reich’s orgone energy accumulator and DOR-buster.

This issue [Volume 11, Number 1 (2011)] contains the following articles:

In “Malinowski Revisited and Reich’s Children of the Future,” Morton Herskowitz, D.O., discusses Reich’s insights concerning childhood in the light of Bronislaw Malinowski’s findings in his classic anthropological
studies of the Trobriand islanders.

In “Double-Blind Controlled Experiments in the Orgone Energy Accumulator,” Philip Bennett, Ph.D., reviews the history of double-blind methods in biomedical research, noting the paucity of their use in orgonomic research. He then describes recent double-blind studies demonstrating biological effects of a device that resembles the orgone energy accumulator.

In “Onion Plant Responses to Orgone Accumulator Treatment,” Joseph Heckman, Ph.D., presents data from two field experiments on the effects of different durations of accumulator treatment of onion bulbs before planting. Although no significant differences in plant growth parameters were noted, the results suggest that orgone accumulator treatment may retard leaf senescence.

In “Politics, Religion and Human Nature,” Peter Robbins illustrates how irrationalism in politics and society  have obstructed scientific research on unidentified flying objects.

In “Children as Teachers,” Dorothea Fuckert, M.D., describes her experiences of parenting that were based on self-regulation. She describes what she and her husband learned from their two sons through their infancy, the time they spent at Summerhill School, and as they matured into adulthood.

In “Foundations for a Functional Analysis of Economics,” Dean Davidson describes Reich’s use of Karl Marx’s analysis of living working power and its role in the production of surplus value. He contrasts Reich’s approach with more recent attempts to understand human economic relations that have ignored these findings.

In “Orgone Therapy – A Patient’s Perspective,” a patient movingly describes the impact of orgone therapy on her life.

The “Communications and Notes” section includes memorial tributes to Bernard R. Grad, Ph.D., Eva Renate Reich, M.D. and Ilse Ollendorff Reich; a listing of recent lectures and publications by members of the Institute; and an announcement of the Training Program in Orgonomic Therapy offered by the Institute.

The Annals is reasonably priced and, starting with this issue, can now be obtained online:

Print-on-demand hardcopy: $25 plus postage

PDF download: $15

It may be ordered at: http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/378920?__r=189316.

I also recommend to my readers the website www.psychorgone.com. It provides an excellent introduction to Reich’s discoveries. Stephan Simonian, M.D., a psychiatric orgone therapist practicing in California, is its founder and editor. He, along with many other contributors, present articles (and YouTubes) on a wide range of topics related to the science of orgonomy. The article written by Dr. Morton Herskowitz in this edition of the Annals has now been reprinted in its entirety on his website.

Adding My Voice to the Circumcision Debate

In 1952 Wilhelm Reich said, “Take that poor penis. Take a knife--right? And start cutting. And everybody says, “It doesn't hurt.” Everybody says, “No, it doesn't hurt.” Get it? Thatʼs an excuse, of course, a subterfuge. They say that the sheaths of the nerve are not yet developed. Therefore, the sensation in the nerves is not yet developed. Therefore, the child doesn't feel a thing. Now, thatʼs murder! Circumcision is one of the worst treatments of children. And what happens to them? You just look at them. They canʼt talk to you. They just cry. What they do is shrink. They contract, get away into the inside, away from that ugly world.” This quote appeared in the book “Reich Speaks of Freud” (1967).

Now, more than sixty years later, there are organizations in countries around the world that educate people about circumcision. Their message is that the procedure is cruel, medically unnecessary, and has lifelong consequences.

There are hundreds of websites speaking out against circumcision. Beyond the Bris: Questioning Jewish Circumcision is an intactivist site with Jewish contributors:

http://www.beyondthebris.com/

An article I wrote for Beyond the Bris in February led Intact America, in March, to ask me to be their intactivist of the month:

http://www.intactamerica.org/schwartzman

I am honored to now be a member of their Board of Health Professionals.

Introductory Seminar of Psychiatric Orgone Therapy and Character Analysis

The Greek Society of Psychiatric Orgone Τherapy and Character Αnalysis is pleased to announce a new course on the theory and general principles of Wilhelm Reich’s method of treating emotional disorders. It will be the first of its kind in Europe, where Reich’s discoveries are widely studied and continue to be put to practical use.

The program will consist of monthly seminars beginning on January 27th in Thessaloniki and on February 3rd in Athens, and they will continue through June 2015.

The three members of the Society’s training committee are psychiatric orgone therapists. In Thessaloniki the seminars will be conducted by psychiatrist Nassos Teopoulos, M.D., and in Athens by child psychiatrist George Argyreas, M.D. Both trained with the American College of Orgonomy where they were clinical associates for more than ten years. 

Psychiatrist Richard Schwartzman, D.O., will participate by way of regularly scheduled webinars. He trained with Morton Herskowitz, D.O and Elsworth F. Baker, M.D. who were students of Reich. He was director of The Advanced Technical Training Seminar at the American College of Orgonomy for more than twenty years and is now an honorary member of the Institute for Orgonomic Science in Philadelphia, PA.

The completion of this program is a prerequisite for physicians and psychologists who wish to be accepted for future clinical training in the practice of psychiatric orgone therapy and character analysis. For further information and an application individuals interested in applying for this initial course of study can contact the Society at: seminar@orgonetherapy.gr. 

MONTHLY SCHEDULE FOR THE

“INTRODUCTORY SEMINAR OF PSYCHIATRIC ORGONE THERAPY

AND CHARACTER ANALYSIS”

1^ο Session:       Introduction. General principles of orgonomy and orgonetherapy.

2^ο Session:      Erogenous zones, libidinal stages and psychic structure, and the concept of character in psychiatric orgonetherapy.

3^ο Session:      Webinar with Richard Schwartzman: Discussion on erogenous zones, libidinal stages, psychic structure and character.

4^ο Session:      The concept of armoring. Origin and segmental structure of somatic and psychic armoring. (Part A)

5^ο Session:      The concept of armoring. Origin and segmental structure of somatic and psychic armoring. (Part B)

6^ο Session:      Webinar with Richard Schwartzman: Discussion on armoring.

7^ο Session:      The concept of contact. Problems of contact, genitality.

8^ο Session:      Adolescence: treatment of problems and therapeutic interventions.

9^ο Session:      Genital character types: Genesis, character traits and symptoms, biophysical structure and general therapeutic principles. (Part A)

10^ο Session:    Genital character types: Genesis, character traits and symptoms, biophysical structure and general therapeutic principles. (Part B)

11^ο Session:    Webinar with Richard Schwartzman: Discussion on genital character types.

12^ο Session:    Phallic character types: Genesis, character traits and symptoms, biophysical structure and general therapeutic principles.  (Part A)

13^ο Session:    Phallic character types: Genesis, character traits and symptoms, biophysical structure and general therapeutic principles.  (Part B)

14^ο Session:    Webinar with Richard Schwartzman: Discussion on phallic character types.

15^ο Session:    Anal character types: Genesis, character traits and symptoms, biophysical structure and general therapeutic principles.  (Part A)

16^ο Session:    Anal character types: Genesis, character traits and symptoms, biophysical structure and general therapeutic principles.  (Part B)

17^ο Session:    Webinar with Richard Schwartzman: Discussion on anal character types.

18^ο Session:    Oral character types and Ocular character types: Genesis, character traits and symptoms, biophysical structure and general therapeutic principles.  (Part A)

19^ο Session:    Oral character types and Ocular character types: Genesis, character traits and symptoms, biophysical structure and general therapeutic principles.  (Part B)

20^ο Session:    Webinar with Richard Schwartzman: Discussion on oral and ocular character types.

21^ο Session:    Socio-Political character types: Genesis, character traits and symptoms, biophysical structure and general therapeutic principles.

22^ο Session:    Webinar with Richard Schwartzman: Discussion on socio-political character types.

23^ο Session:    The orgonomic concept of biopathy.

24^ο Session:    Initial examination of a patient, history and its importance, general therapeutic principles of psychiatric orgonetherapy.

25^ο Session:    Webinar with Richard Schwartzman: Discussion on the importance of history and the general therapeutic principles.

26^ο Session:    Armoring prevention, management and therapeutic intervention on newborns, babies and infants.

27^ο Session:    Webinar with Richard Schwartzman: Discussion on armoring prevention and the treatment of early armoring in newborns, babies and infants.

Examinations are mandatory for those interested in continuing into the Clinical Seminar and optional for all others.

Food Reactions

Despite having had the negative allergy testing, I'm still having reactions occasionally to some foods. I didn't elaborate much on my allergy testing before, but I was highly disappointed by it. When I told the doctor the reactions I had been having, he told me it wasn't possible. He told me it wasn't possible to have hives for two weeks, even though I said I had. He told me it wasn't possible that I had a swollen throat, swollen enough for others to tell me I looked like I had the mumps, for a couple weeks. He told me normal reactions only last for a few hours or days.

I totally understand it not being the typical reaction, but when a doctor tells me it isn't even possible, it's very clear to me that I've been labeled a hypochondriac at best or a liar at worst and that there will be no working relationship between us. So then what? At least I found out that I wasn't having an IgE mediated response to certain foods, so I no longer was worried about anaphylaxis, that gave me some level of peace, so I just dropped it ... forgot about it.

Then ..... at Oktoberfest in downtown Cincinnati I had another issue. We were there for at least five hours. I had two beers. I was careful to eat foods that I knew were safe for me. I had fried fish ... at an outdoor event ... who knows if food handling there was perfect? In the middle of the night, I woke up with heart palpitations and GI issues. My husband said I probably had a hangover .... from TWO beers? I told him I only had two beers, that it felt like an allergy (if you have allergies, you know what I mean by that, the feeling of too much adrenaline or something). I was sick for four days.

One day last fall we bought some peaches at a local farm. They were so good I ate five. The inside of my mouth burned like I had swished around acid in it. The same thing has happened with pineapple.

I took two bites of my husband's lobster bisque at a restaurant. I had two glasses of red wine with my dinner. I was sick the whole next day with intense fatigue.

I had champagne on my anniversary a couple days after the lobster bisque. Maybe a little more than my usual two glasses, but certainly not enough to be hammered ..... or sick for five days afterward ... two of those days not even leaving bed. This time headache, body aches (severe), severe tightness in the chest, cough, and fatigue.

It was then that I started researching. Obviously SOMETHING was causing these reactions. So I started looking at common denominators and came up with histamine. All the foods I've mentioned are high in histamine. To compound that affect, alcohol lowers the chemicals in the body that process histamine. The reason these reactions look like allergies, if I'm right, is that histamine is usually a reposnse to an allergen. Yet it's also present in foods.

When I think back, this isn't a problem that started after Lyme Disease. I remember reactions like I've described above happening as far back as college.

The way to diagnose a histamine intolerance is to go on a low histamine diet for a month, then to challenge it. So, I'm starting a low histamine diet to the best of my ability. It also means no alcohol, which shouldn't be too hard, though I'll miss having a glass of wine once in a while.

I'll let you know how it goes. I feel like I might finally have an answer.

Wilhelm Reich and Emotional Illness

In a recent post I wrote about “short-burst therapy,” an intensive treatment approach that can serve as an alternative to regularly spaced therapy sessions, saying it was especially suited for those living a long distance from a qualified orgone therapist. In this post I will discuss some of the reasons why more has not been written about this unique therapy, one that makes use of emotional release in the treatment of mental disorders. I will also begin a discussion of the principles that govern the practice of orgone therapy, starting with Reich’s concept of armor. 

In the past half century a fair amount has been written about Wilhelm Reich’s method of treating emotional disturbances. Many have recorded their thinking on the subject and therapists have written case histories that have appeared in various journals. Nevertheless, I feel much has been left out of the discussion. 

For me, in almost every therapy session, there is some aspect of the patient that’s revealed that proves valuable in their therapy. I am never bored and am frequently amazed, even after all these years, as I see Reich’s theories and approach to treating proved time and again. Each session confirms the effectiveness of orgone therapy, and almost any session could be written up for publication. 

Barriers to Publication

Those few of us who do this kind of work will understand my feeling, as their experiences must be the same. So why hasn’t more been written about this treatment? And why have some important elements crucial to its understanding been omitted in what has been published? There are many reasons for this, however a few are worth noting. 

First, as therapists, our focus is on seeing patients. Establishing contact with them and staying connected, from moment to moment, session after session, is our primary goal. Writing up a case history for a professional journal is seen as a secondary task, if the thought is entertained at all. Another reason more hasn’t been written is that many of the things that occur in therapy sessions do not lend themselves to being reported, let alone to be written up. They occur all the time, and while we may share them with colleagues in conference, or in one-on-one training with students, such valuable observations passed on in this way are not being documented for the future. 

Also, some orgone therapists have had concern when it comes to publicly expounding technique--the nuts and bolts of therapy. Their worry is that if too much of the actual methods are revealed to the lay audience, they will be latched onto and misused. Unfortunately this has happened, and there are a wide array of various “bodywork therapists” and “energy healers” who have taken it upon themselves to offer various therapies very loosely based on the treatment Reich employed. These have no meaningful ties whatsoever to psychiatric orgone therapy. 

While I do share concerns about the potential for information about Reich’s treatment approach to be misused, I am also aware that much of what I and others know has never been written down. In light of this I have been making an effort to record some of what I know, based on my forty years of experience. 

What is known of Reich’s therapeutic approach--in the true sense--comes down to us, almost exclusively, from two psychiatrists who were treated and trained by Reich. Both have written an authoritative book on orgone therapy. These important works are: Man in the Trap by Elsworth F. Baker, M.D. and Emotional Armoring: An Introduction to Psychiatric Orgone Therapy by Morton Herskowitz, D.O. These publications are especially valuable because Reich wrote almost nothing about the biophysical approach he developed long after he published Character Analysis. Even with these two excellent books, and with the contributions that have appeared in journals, there is more that can be said about the cause and prevention of emotional illness, as well as the practice of this treatment. 

Purpose of Therapy

The goal of treatment is to remove the root cause of emotional illness. This differs markedly from today’s traditional psychiatric approach, which is only about symptom management with various cognitive strategies or the use of medications. 

Because the principle governing orgone therapy is that emotional disturbances begin before speech develops, verbal therapies, while they can certainly be valuable, are necessarily limited in effectiveness. They can help to explore mental processes and solve some of life’s problems, but they can’t reach back to the very early traumatic events that laid the foundation for an individual’s present emotional state.

There is no question medications can be enormously valuable in the treatment of emotional disorders. They have helped alleviate suffering in untold millions--making their lives more tolerable. However medications can, at best, only relieve some symptoms associated with emotional illness, and none have ever effected a cure. What’s more the side effects are such that the trade off between benefit and drawback is a constant challenge to every patient taking these agents, as well as to their prescribing physician. Medications, like verbal therapies, are unable to strike at the source of mental disorders. 

Role of Armor 

The premise of orgone therapy is that “armor” develops in the body to repress the emotional and physical traumas that occurred in infancy and early childhood. Armor is the body’s way of keeping past painful events out of awareness. It is nothing less than the unconscious locked in the body. We know this is so because, as armor dissolves in the course of orgone therapy, long buried feelings and emotions spontaneously appear. Not infrequently these are accompanied by flashbacks to traumatic events that occurred soon after birth and in the first year or two of life. 

Armor can be defined as the chronic muscular spasms that develop as a defense against the breakthrough of repressed feelings and emotions. It develops throughout the body and, while it lodges primarily in muscles, it also appears in other areas, such as in the internal organs and in the brain itself. However, armor is not just a physical phenomenon. It is revealed in character as well--that is, how one presents themselves to the world. For example, character can show itself as an attitude, in mannerisms, and in posture. Physical and character armor are not separate entities, but rather two side of the same coin. Together, they can often indicate how a person adapted to traumatic events when very young, and much about how they are now as adults. 

Armor permeates the body, yet people are entirely unaware of its existence. They think their emotional problems exist solely because of heredity, events that can be recalled from when they were little, today’s society, and so on. But they never realize their unhappiness resides deep within them, and that their buried emotions determine how they now feel and function. 

In a sense armor is a valuable mechanism, and everyone should be thankful that it does its job so well. Given that the painful past remains alive in us, as it surely does, who would want to be constantly in contact with it? However, as everything has two sides, so it is with armoring. While it does blot out the past as best it can, it also deadens. Without it people would function naturally and be able to enjoy all life has to offer.

Chinese cemetery operator invests in stem cell anti-aging

Late last year, a Hong Kong-based Caymans-incorporated company, Zmay Holdings, caught the stem cell fever, plunking down around $40 million (a total of 330 mil HKD) in bonds and equity in a deal for a technology that apparently involves growing various types of human stem cells from ordinary somatic cells by treating them with Chinese herbs like ginseng, angelica and bitter melon, or a dash of deer antler and leech extract if you have them handy. The specifications are strangely quiet on the feng shui conditions under which these processes should be conducted - I'm guessing trade secret. Jokes aside, this looks like another step in the inexorable march of so-called "stem cells" into penumbral territory usually occupied by homeopathy, energy healing and Baron Samedi.  


Zmay, whose English website reveals one of its primary business to be funeral services and cemetery management, bought the tech from inventor Xiongbin Lin, through a contorted (to me, anyway) deal involving multiple foreign-registered holding companies and fronts. No mention is made of whether anti-aging customers who die as a result of "stem cell" treatment will get a deal on a headstone and plot of turf.

Death - the ultimate anti-aging solution

Forty mil is big money by any measure, especially for a technology that has not been described, or even mentioned, in a peer-reviewed journal - at least not that I could find in English. And the new licensees have lost no time in seeking to capitalize on their investment. The Institute of Anti-Aging Medical Research on Stem Cells (Hong Kong) Limited, which was acquired from Lin as part of the deal, has recently changed its name to 159 Anti-Aging Center (H.K.) Ltd., registered a web domain, and is on a hiring spree. A bolus of stem cell cash can't come to soon for Zmay, which has suffered recent financial losses and suspension of trading of its shares on the HK Gem boards last month. 

It's always hard to tell who the final sucker will be in deals of this ilk, the licensees, or the prospective patients they try to foist their schemes onto - whoever it is, my friends, don't let it be you. 

How many FDA auditors can you fit in a PO Box?

Ask the ICMS.

The International Cell Marketing Service Medicine Society reports that the FDA has audited its institutional review board (IRB), which the ICMS claims has been asked to review "nearly two dozen study applications over the last 3 years from nearly a half dozen countries."

The FDA has looked into a number of other IRBs in the past, including the unfortunately named Coast IRB, and a perhaps somewhat less than conscientious operator in my native NJ, Essex, which was recently busted, yet again, by Dateline NBC. Those are just the tip of the iceberg - the folks at CIRCARE have a whole catalog of IRB warning letters from the FDA chroncling oversight lapses on the part of supposed watchodgs. U Minn ethics professor Carl Elliott has been calling attention to the problems raised by fig-leaf IRBs and their porous reviews of clinical research for years now. It will be interesting to learn whether the FDA puts ICMS's review process in the same category.

Meanwhile, over at the iPS cell blog, Paul Knoepfler is reporting that the FDA has been busy down Texas way as well....

Stemedica thrives on neglect

Stemedica is a San Diego-based stem cell company founded in the mid noughties to harness and commercialize "adult stem cell technology and therapies for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases." The principal movers and shakers behind the launch of this private venture were two American brothers - Roger and Maynard Howe - and their longtime Russian business partner, Nikolai Tankovich. The Brothers Howe have said they were driven to this area of medicine after a sister-in-law was severely injured in a car accident in 2004 that left her paraplegic, and after hearing of miraculous advances in cell medicine in the former Soviet Union. A compelling story, but one that neglects a few salient details...

The Stemedica Three

After taking their sister-in-law to Moscow for stem cell injections in 2006, the company claimed that, "Within four months, many basic life-functioning abilities began to return and [she] was able regain her independence". By the next year the Stemedica team had announced a network of international treatment centers in places like Mexico, Italy, Switzerland and France, with others to follow in Bermuda and Korea. The plan was to use various types of "adult stem cells" (apparently including fetal-derived neural cells), in combination with lasers and other devices, to treat diseases such as "stroke, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ischemic head trauma, spinal cord injury, diseases of the eye such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy as well as skin, scar and bone regeneraton [sic]". 


A visitor to the Stemedica website circa 2007 was also greeted with an impressive list of institutional "strategic relationships" sporting the logos of Stanford, UC Irvine, and the Burnham Institute, among others.

By 2009, the company website had removed all mention of treatment centers and Stemedica was well on its way to amassing a collection of biotech merit badges, including state certification of a cGMP cell bank, FDA authorization for a Phase I/II clinical trial, and more recently, a patent on a cellular scaffold invented by Stemedica CTO, Alex Kharazi.


But when you're talking about overseas treatment/profit centers, gone does not necssearily mean forgotten, and Stemedica continues to have unusually cozy relationships with a number of clinics outside the US that openly advertise stem cell injections for a thick catalog of afflictions. 


The Regenerative Medicine Institute in Tijuana, Mexico (which I have blogged a bit about before) is just 30 miles south of the Stemedica office. The first clinic to be accredited by the ICMS, the RMI (which is set up within the Hospital Angeles Tijuana medical tourism operation in Mexico) offers stem cells for dozens of conditions, from cerebral palsy to frailty syndrome, under a novel business scheme in which patients are told that, for $10,000-$35,000 they can buy their way into a "clinical trial" absent many of the features like controls, randomization, or blinding that would actually make it possible to generate any scientific insights into the efficacy of the investigational product. 


The institute's StemCellMX website encourages users "To find out if our trials are right for you please contact us using the form on the right". Essentially, they ask their customers to be subjects in medical experiments, but to pay as if they are receiving therapy. Some have begun to complain. 

Stemedica's ostensible connection is as a provider of allogeneic stem cell technology for use in one such trial for stroke. A page deeper in the StemCellMX website, however, explains how a different Howe brother, David (who has an M.D. from Ross University in the Dominican Republic), accompanied 19 patients with serious, unrelated medical conditions like autism, muscular dystrophy, spinal cord injury and hearing loss to Moscow for similar experitherapies (theraperiments?), claiming 89% improvement. The doctor in charge of these procedures was Nikolay Mironov, a member of the Stemedica Scientific Advisory Board, and the treating physician at Global Stem Cell Health (treating stroke, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, etc.), a company co-founded by former Stemedica director of medical services, Michael Bayer. (Bayer had previously run Bayer Stem Cells, a now-inactive site with a very similar M.O.)


The link between Hospital Angeles and Stemedica goes back at least to the 2007 list of Licensed Treatment Centers on the Stemedica website (and even today, Cesar Amescua of Grupo Angeles is Stemedica's medical and regulatory affairs director for Latin America). Also on the 2007 list is the Brown-Darrell Clinic in Bermuda, which was slated to be launched in 2008 in collaboration with Ewart Brown, then-Premier of the island nation, and his wife Wanda. The opening had to be postposed after a local media firestorm ignited over the propriety of opening a stem cell hospital in a country in which medical regulations for cell therapy were not in place, and the Brown-Darrell clinic vanished from Stemedica's site. Five years later, no such guidelines have materialized and the controversy simmers on.


During the 2007 hubbub, the Bermuda Sun earned itself a heartfelt hat-tip for doing  background and fact checks on key players at Stemedica. They revealed that CEO Maynard Howe, Ph.D. was a "marketing expert with a Midas touch" who had made tens of millions from the sale of an anti-wrinkle laser, at a company in which Roger and David Howe and Nikolai Tankovich were also all partners (as was Roger's son Derek, the VP of operations at Stemedica at that time). The Sun reported that Maynard was also chairman of a nutraceutical company selling something called Nanogreens (the healthy fast food!).


The Sun also cast light on CMO Nikolai Tankovich, a physicist who first struck it rich with a hair-removal laser, before setting up the company Aquaphotonics and developing a cellular hydration bottled water product that was marketed as Penta Water; the company claimed that its structural differences from ordinary water made it better at hydration. Penta earned the rare distinction of being called out on its spurious claims on separate occasions by skeptic icons James Randi and Ben Goldacre, among others (Goldacre later wrote that he received anonymous threats after voicing his doubts about Penta.) In 2005, the UK Advertising Standards Authority upheld a number of complaints against Penta for misleading claims.

Alkhass (Amni), Schuller (Stemedica Intl., Amni)

Meanwhile, in the Rest of the World, Stemedica has continued its empire-building and regulatory arbitrage overseas. In recent years, they have inked a deal with Jordanian Stem Cell Company, chaired by Prince Asem Bin Nayef of Jordan, and partnered with Amni BioScience, a Middle East regional biz headed by fellow San Diego citizen Sam Alkhass (who also brokered the Jordan alliance), and counting Tankovich and David Howe, as well as Stemedica International chief Frank Schuller, and Mark Tager, Stemedica executive for dermatological operations, and another 'nother Howe brother, Bruce, on its team.


Stemedica is popping up all over Asia, entering a joint venture with AnC Bio in Korea, and launching Stemedica Asia in Singapore. In China, Maynard and David held an Educational Forum with W.A. Stem Cell Technologies, a company recently exposed in a Nature article that detailed how its medical tourism arm offers a double dose of stem cells (adipose, cord blood) for autism for 250,000 RMB (around $40,000), in apparent violation of the Chinese Ministry of Health's efforts to rein in over-the-top claims of stem cell efficacy. W.A. is headed by Shu Li, a former engineer who also goes by the name of Taichi Tzu, holds a patent on negative gravity therapeutic methods, and has "been practicing Taoist alchemy for over 15 years."

Maynard and David go to Shanghai

Stemedica also shows up in the logo roll on the website for Beijing's IPM Group (also known as Beijing Damcell Bio-Medical Technology), alongside the heraldry for Harvard, Oxford, and Cambridge and STEM-CELL.KZ (website archived here), a seemingly now-defunct company in Kazakhstan, the country where Daniyar Jumaniyazov has been injecting heart patients with Stemedica cells as part of a trial at the National Medical Research Center in Astana, in collaboration with Nikolai Tankovich. (Jumaniyazov is also a member of the Amni team). 

Some people might see Kazakhstan as a less than obvious choice for a Phase II clinical trial, but at least two U.S. cardiologists, Nabil Dib and Jackie See, called the announced results "promising" and "impressive" in a recent press release. What the Stemedica release fails to mention is the direct ties between the company and these commentators; Jackie See is on the Stemedica scientific advisory board, and that Nabil Dib is a special advisor to the board.


The release also fails to mention that Jackie See, himself a member of the physician team at California Stem Cell Treatment Center (which offers stem cells for (among others) asthma, hair loss, incontinence, MS, kidney failure and Peyronie's disease), has been in trouble in the past for scientific fraud. In 1999, the LA Times reported how Harvard Scientific, a company at which he was director for research, got into trouble with the FDA for submitting "misleading and erroneous information about a clinical study" for an agent being tested for treatment of sexual impotence. Predictably, this hurt Harvard Scientific's share price, triggering an investor suit against See (RK Company v See). According to the circuit court ruling, the court "repeatedly described Dr. See's testimony as not credible," and the plaintiff (who was himself in prison at the time on bribery and racketeering charges) won.


The press release also neglects to disclose that Nabil Dib is the director of cardiovascular research at Mercy Gilbert Medical Center in Arizona, one of the sites where Stemedica is conducting its stroke clinical trial. It further omits Dib's former role as chief of staff in the stem cell transplant clinic at Stowe Biotherapy. The proprietor of that business, Larry Stowe, surrendered to authorities this January after 60 Minutes caught him and his then-partner Frank Morales offering stem cells and tall tales to an ALS patient, on camera. 

Neglecting the inconvenient seems to be the norm at Stemedica. When the Brothers Three and Tankovich co-authored a book (The Miracle of Stem Cells), the company neglected to mention that the president of their publisher (ChangeWell Publishing) is Stemedica's dermatology exec, Mark Tager. When the radio show In Our Life Time interviewed Maynard Howe about his life, his company, and "the miracle of stem cells" the show's host, Dave McGuigan, neglected to mention that he also serves as Stemedica's VP for Marketing and Business Development, despite having an hour to do so. And when Stemedica announced that company president Nikolai Tankovich had been named legate at the obscure Centre for Science and Society in Oxford, they neglected to mention that the director of that centre, Frank C. Schuller, is also head of Switzerland-based Stemedica International. 

We're in the business of miracles  

Stemedica even almost entirely neglects to mention that some of its "adult, allogeneic stem cells" are actually fetal in origin (the mincing code for this apparently being "taken from donated brain tissue"). Fetal cell injections have a history of being ethically problematic and potentially dangerous, when used outside the a well-regulated, scientifically controlled context. (Readers interested in a disturbing, long-form exposition of a fetal cell treatment gone haywire should check out this chapter from the book, When Science Goes Wrong.)   


Riccardo Nisato, Director of Manufacturing and Clinical Business Development at Stemedica International, did in fact drop the F (for "fetal") bomb in a single comment announcing his appointment back in 2009, which Stemedica's neglecters seem to have neglected to neglect but, to be fair, he was still new back then and may have missed the memo.


The sister-in-law whose accidental paralysis kicked off this latest family venture died back in 2009. But while she was still living, a local magazine reported that, despite the hype, "an MRI performed in June revealed that the stem cells had not repaired her spinal cord." In the end, she attributed her perceived progress "to God." 

Q&A with Carl Elliott

Carl Elliott, a bioethicist at the University of Minnesota and author of such works as White Coat, Black Hat and a recent article on Slate that, shall we say, burned bright, hot and fast, interviewed me and posted our conversation on the Brainstorm blog at The Chronicle of Higher Education. Carl is known for his courageous and influential work on serious issues in medical ethics, so it was a great honor for me to have this opportunity to talk about about the history of this blog and issues in the predatory marketing of stem cells.