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November 2005
South Korean medical firm
offers stem cell treatment to foreigners
Nov 2005
SEOUL : With its doctors at the vanguard of pioneering stem cell therapy,
South Korea is looking to become a "medical tourism" destination for foreigners
unable to find cures in the own countries.
Two foreigners have already received therapy at South Korean medical firm
Histostem, which has perfected a method of stem cell therapy using umbilical
cord blood and boasts the biggest stock of cord blood and stem cells in the
world.
Although some Western Western doctors are sceptical over the proven benefits of
the treatment, the firm is hoping to build a hospital in South Korea's tourist
island of Jeju, off the country's southern coast, in the next few years.
Jeju is currently considering introducing legislation that will offer incentives
to firms moving to the island, and the timing of Histostem's project to build a
hospital will depend on when the laws are enacted.
"The hospital is part of a medical tourism project, but we need to see all the
necessary legal provisions squarely in place before we push through with the
project in concrete details," the firm's chief financial officer Kye Yung-Su
told AFP.
Histostem has bought a large plot of land and is hoping to complete construction
by 2007.
"But it could be delayed by a few years from our original target date,"
said Kye.
Han Hoon, the doctor who heads Histostem, said the hospital would be the first
in the world offering only stem-cell therapy.
Stem cells refer to master cells found in embryos and other areas of the body
that can develop into cells of any organ. They could have a valuable therapeutic
use in treating illnesses from cancer to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease,
according to experts.
Since May 2003, Han and his team have been using umbilical cord blood stem-cell
therapy to treat patients with medical conditions that other treatments have
failed to help such as liver cirrhosis, Buerger's disease, diabetes, chronic
renal failure and a dozen other diseases.
Last year Han's team treated its first foreign patients, a 21-year-old Croatian
man and a 32-year-old Turkish woman both suffering from spinal cord injuries.
The team's first patient from the United States is expected to arrive before the
end of the year.
Michelle Farrar, 36, from Virginia, was paralysed in a car accident two years
ago. She is paying around US$100,000 for the treatment without a guarantee of
success.
Han said that the Croatian and the Turk had both partially recovered their sense
of hot and cold but have not yet recovered the ability to move and need a second
course of stem cell injections.
He said that results of stem cell therapy vary depending on the kind of diseases
and the degree of severity in each case. But in most cases treatments improved
or cured the diseases, Han claimed.
He and his researchers have carried out more than 250 umbilical cord blood stem
cell treatments since July 2003, including cases of spinal cord injuries.
Han has recently added Alzheimer's Disease to his list for treatments and is
excited about the potential. He has treated two Alzheimer patients in the past
six months and the results were "quite impressive," he said.
A 79-year-old woman who received two injections of stem cells 16 days earlier
has been making progress, her son Back Jae-Seoung told AFP.
"Before the injections, she didn't even recognise me and just stared blankly at
TV," he said. "Now she keeps up her own running commentary on TV drama and knows
who I am," said the 55-year-old businessman.
However, critics say that although Han's therapy is based on genuine science and
may have potential, its benefits remain unproven.
"Medical tests must be backed by scientific papers submitted to authoritative
journals for experts' scrutiny. If you just say 'Hey, I tried this and it worked
well', you would become a laughing stock," said Kong Il-Keun, a bio engineering
expert of the Suncheon National University.
Meanwhile controversy over South Korea's stem cell industry heated up this week
with the nation's cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-Suk - who is not involved with Han
or Histostem - admitted ethical irregularities.
Hwang admitted on Thursday that he had covered up the fact that researchers in
his team had donated their own eggs to research that produced the world's first
cloned human embryo for generating stems cells.
Taking responsibility for ethical violations, he stepped down from all official
posts including the chairmanship of a new research body, the World Stem Cell
Hub, established only last month by the government. Experts, however, said the
setback would not derail the nation's pioneering stem cell research.