A Controversial Autism Treatment Is About to Become a Very Big Business

[Nevilledog]

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Anna Merlan
@annamerlan
New feature: for years, Duke University has charged desperate parents $15,000 to give their kids an unproven autism treatment using cord blood. Now, a private company they partner with is looking to make it a big business.

A Controversial Autism Treatment Is About to Become a Very Big Business
Duke University and a private company have been selling access to unproven cord blood treatments for autism. Now, they're planning something much bigger.
vice.com
6:51 AM · Oct 6, 2021

https://www.vice.com/en/article/qj87xm/a-controversial-autism-treatment-is-about-to-become-a-very-big-business

When desperate parents are looking for medical treatment for their kids, especially their autistic kids, they often do two things: They look up information about a program at Duke University, and then, in short order, they go to GoFundMe. The fundraising site is full of pleas that often mirror each other, in essence saying: My child has one hope, and that hope is in stem cell and cord blood treatments.

This hope, though, is attached to treatments that are hotly disputed at best, unproven at worst, and often very expensive in either case. At Duke University’s Marcus Center for Cellular Cures, parents can enroll their children into a number of clinical trials that aim to study the effects of cells derived from umbilical cord blood on treating the effects of autism and brain injuries; adults can also participate in a trial testing whether cord blood can help them recover from ischemic strokes. And when parents can’t get their children into any of these clinical trials, particularly for autism, they often opt for what’s called the Expanded Access Program (EAP), in which they pay between $10,000 and $15,000 to get their kids a single infusion.

All of the trials use products derived from human umbilical cord blood, which is a source of stem cells as well as other types of cells. The autism trials are using a type of immune cells called monocytes, according to Dr. Joanne Kurtzberg, a well-respected Duke professor who’s conducting clinical trials into whether cord blood can help with autism, and who has been researching stem cells since the early ‘90s. (On ClinicalTrials.gov, however, these trials are listed as using mesenchymal stromal cells, which are a completely different type of cord blood cell.)

Now, a for-profit company called Cryo-Cell International with ties to Duke researchers has indicated that it plans to open clinics promoting these treatments, under a licensing agreement with the renowned North Carolina university. (Cryo-Cell acknowledged receiving a list of questions from Motherboard, but did not respond to any follow-up emails or respond to those questions before publication.) In their investor presentation, Cryo-Cell said they plan to become “an autonomous, vertically integrated cellular therapy company that will treat patients.”

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[GPV]

1. I have a kid on the spectrum, and worked with others. I want to see quantifiable

proof that this makes any positive changes.

[in2herbs]

2. I have a friend with 2 kids diagnosed with autism. My hesitation goes even beyond yours. I would

like proof positive of the autism diagnosis. Without a proof positive of an autism diagnosis there can be no claim that it "works" on autism and all that doctors are doing is "practicing" medicine.