Journal article
Open for business: A comparative study of websites selling autologous stem cells in Australia and Japan
M Munsie, T Lysaght, T Hendl, HYL Tan, I Kerridge, C Stewart
Regenerative Medicine | Published : 2017
Abstract
Aim: This article examines online marketing practices of Japanese and Australian clinics offering putative autologous stem cell treatments. Materials & methods: We conducted google searches for keywords related to stem cell therapy and stem cell clinics in English and Japanese. Results: We identified websites promoting 88 point-of-sale clinics in Japan and 70 in Australia. Conclusion: Our findings provide further evidence of the rapid global growth in clinics offering unproven stem cell interventions. We also show that these clinics adopt strategies to promote their services as though they are consistent with evidentiary and ethical standards of science, research and medicine. Unless address..
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Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
Research for this paper was supported with the funding from an Australian Research Council Linkage Project Grant (LP150100739) and the National University of Singapore Office of the Deputy President (Research and Technology) - Humanities and Social Sciences Research Fund (WBS: R-171-000-055-646). The authors would like to acknowledge and thank the collaborators on those grants for their ongoing support. I Kerridge is a bone marrow transplant physician, Chair of the ACI New South Wales Bone Marrow Transplant Network Long-Term Follow-Up Working Group, Board member New South Wales Stem Cell Network and Member of the National Health and Medical Research Council's Xenotransplantation Committee. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.