Ozzy Osbourne is a Stem Cell Patient

As a huge fan of Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath, I am thrilled by today’s news that Ozzy is receiving stem cell therapy for his Parkinson's disease.  The FoxNews article shines a light on the major issues with access to a stem cell therapy in the United States.

The reasons stated for undergoing the stem cell therapy is his desire to be healthy, spend time with family, and see his grandchildren grow up. These are fundamental rights we all share - rights that stem cell treatments can help make possible.

Ozzy's daughter Kelly has already described the "mind blowing progress" he's made just three months after treatment. This isn't surprising - stem cells are incredible healing tools. When manufactured following proper protocols, stem cell therapy is actually very safe, as over 5,000 phase one clinical trials have demonstrated. 

In the article they quote Dr. Mikkael Sekeres, chief of the division of hematology of Sylvester Cancer Center at the University of Miami.  The authors don't grasp the difference between a mesenchymal stem cell treatment which Ozzy most likely received and a hemopoietic stem cell transplant.
 
Dr. Mikkael Sekeres states “"Use of stem cells in this way has saved tens of thousands of lives," he noted.  "Stem cell therapy given for other reasons is largely experimental and unproven," Sekeres noted.
 
What Dr. Sekeres fails to mention is that the use of hematopoietic stem cell was experimental and unproven before they created a regulatory system that allows the National Marrow Donor Program to perform every single hematopoietic stem cell transplantation under a single open IND/clinical trial.  This IND Allows for any transplant physician and any transplant center to join this clinical trial it also allows to treat 99,999 patients.

While the FDA has an open IND/clinical trial system allowing widespread access to hematopoietic stem cells to treat blood cancers, no such pathway exists for mesenchymal stem cells - despite them not requiring the same rigorous donor matching.  My question is why not? 

It's unacceptable that in the country with the world's greatest hospitals, patients commonly travel to Mexico, Costa Rica or Colombia for stem cell treatments. We need to reform our laws to expand access here at home.

Experts caution patients to be wary of stem cell treatments lacking proper approvals and oversight. Valid concern, but also a consequence of a broken system forcing patients to take risks either abroad.  I wish the experts who express so much caution also offered up real solutions.   Organizations like the Perinatal Stem Cell Society are working to drive these necessary regulatory changes but we need your help.

It's time to create a clear, streamlined pathway for clinically validated stem cell therapies to reach all who could benefit - not just the privileged few. With the right regulatory framework, potentially groundbreaking treatments could be accessible, affordable and properly overseen right here in the United States. Patients battling devastating diseases deserve no less.

The current system fails us all. 

Listen to War Pigs and think about why we don't have stem cell access in the US.

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