EDITORIAL
Stem cell therapy is a small but rapidly increasing component of Thailand's booming medical tourism sector, and there have been a number of well-publicised success stories to come out of it. For instance, the Hollywood producer who was treated with adult stem cells for congestive heart failure in Bangkok earlier this year. Before, said the producer, he had trouble walking six feet without oxygen. Soon after treatment he was walking six miles with no problem.
There is little debate that stem cell therapy can be highly beneficial, even miraculous, and few in Thailand argue that it should not be taking place here. But as former secretary-general of Thailand's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Siriwat Tiptaradol said in July of last year, the use of stem cell therapies in Thailand should be put under the Medical Council of Thailand, and in compliance with FDA regulations.
Mr Siriwat said that at the present time the FDA cannot guarantee this type of treatment because it is not necessary to register stem cells with the FDA before use on a patient, and moreover, the fact that there are various sources of stem cells from patients, donors and imports make it difficult to control. He added that a committee set up by the FDA was considering regulations governing all clinics and hospitals performing stem cell therapy in Thailand, but as yet there has been no definitive word that such regulations are now in place.
In fact the need for a national regulatory body covering research into stem cell technologies and the application of stem cell therapies has been recognised for some time. Former Public Health Minister Pinij Jarusombat chaired a meeting on the nature and direction of stem cell study in Thailand back in January of 2006. The participants, who included Medical Council of Thailand president Prof Somsak Lolekha, agreed to setting up a special committee to support the development of stem cell research to "achieve the utmost benefit for Thailand and to reduce duplication of overlapping of activities", as well as to oversee the mushrooming practice of the stem cell therapists.
The problem may be that successive governments have seen it as more prudent to let the industry flourish without an official endorsement due to the kind of ethical questions that have dogged stem cell research and therapy in countries such as the United States and Europe.
It is true that in May of 2007 the Office of the Board of Investment (BOI) awarded its Seal of Approval to an Israeli-Thai biotechnology company that has developed an apparently highly successful procedure to treat heart patients with adult stem cells. At that time the company claimed a success rate of 75% in treating more than 200 patients with stem cells taken from their own blood, induced to differentiate into heart cells, and then re-introduced to the patients.
The fact that this type of treatment poses no ethical questions, as it does not use tissue from embryos, may have encouraged the BOI's endorsement.
A very small percentage of cells in the blood and tissues of all of us are stem cells, meaning they have the ability to differentiate into various tissue types that might be desired. Embryonic cells, usually obtained from aborted fetuses, have a much greater capacity to differentiate, but cells found in umbilical cords also have a great ability to differentiate and can be gotten without harming a living or potentially living being.
Presumably a national regulatory committee would have to wrestle with ethical questions. However, this might apply mostly to research institutions, since most therapeutic applications actually use non-embryonic cells, derived from adult or umbilical cord blood stem cells. Besides heart disease, these have been used to successfully treat Parkinson's disease, corneal damage, blood and liver diseases and diabetes, among others. Looked at in this light, there seems to be little reason for delay in bringing the country's flourishing stem cell therapy sector under the supervision of a single government agency and the Medical Council of Thailand.
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