Four people were recently indicted on federal charges in the United States for selling unapproved stem cell treatments and other biological products to seriously ill patients. The patients were falsely told that the treatments were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to the indictment.
Francisco Morales, Larry Stowe, Jesus Alberto Ramon and Dr. Vincent Dammai are charged with collecting in excess of $1.5 million from people suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease, Parkinson's, muscular dystrophy and cancer over a period from 2007 to 2010. Ramon, a licensed midwife and owner of the Maternity Care Clinic in Del Rio, Mexico, allegedly sold the umbilical cords of women giving birth at his clinic to Global Laboratories LLC, in Scottsdale, Ariz., which forwarded them to Dammai, an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina's medical school. Dammai harvested the stem cells for Global using university facilities. He did this without FDA or university knowledge or approval, the indictment says.