Clinic in US accused of using Chinese as 'lab rats'
By Cai Wenjun |
February 3, 2012, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A PROMINENT Chinese science website has slammed an American medical institute, accusing its doctors of deceiving Chinese patients with a controversial cancer treatment.
Li Qingchen, a doctor and a contributor to songshuhui.net, a blog dedicated to the dissemination of scientific knowledge, said yesterday that the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) had been using an unapproved cancer therapy to swindle Chinese patients.
Li was the first blogger to question the legality and effects of the cancer medicine used to treat patients at the Burzynski Clinic in Houston.
Songshuhui.net posted Li's blog and other follow-up blogs that questioned the therapy.
"The A4M's representative office in China just sent us an email, complaining that our criticism is wrong," said You Shiyou, chief editor of songshuhui.net. "We take responsibility for our opinion," he added.
The A4M office's website says that antineoplastons discovered by Dr Stanislaw Burzynski in human blood and urine can control cancer growth.
It says the therapy is an experimental treatment offered at the Houston clinic and Chinese patients can go to the US for treatment after undergoing appraisal and making payment.
It says the antineoplaston therapy is currently only available at the clinic as part of clinical trials.
However, Li said in his blog that antineoplastons were not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the prevention or treatment of any disease and the therapy was only in the second phase of clinical trials in the US, which means the medicine is not allowed to be marketed to cancer patients.
"It is suspected that Chinese patients have been tricked into going to America to be laboratory rats," Li said.
Shanghai Daily called the representative office yesterday, but staff there said the officials were all in meeting.
Officials from Shanghai Food and Drug Administration said that in the US all medicines must pass a third phase of clinical trials before being marketed.
If a US medical facility is recruiting Chinese patients to take part in trials, the treatment must be offered free of charge, be under the supervision of an independent panel of experts and be in line with international practice and relevant regulations, they said.
Li Qingchen, a doctor and a contributor to songshuhui.net, a blog dedicated to the dissemination of scientific knowledge, said yesterday that the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) had been using an unapproved cancer therapy to swindle Chinese patients.
Li was the first blogger to question the legality and effects of the cancer medicine used to treat patients at the Burzynski Clinic in Houston.
Songshuhui.net posted Li's blog and other follow-up blogs that questioned the therapy.
"The A4M's representative office in China just sent us an email, complaining that our criticism is wrong," said You Shiyou, chief editor of songshuhui.net. "We take responsibility for our opinion," he added.
The A4M office's website says that antineoplastons discovered by Dr Stanislaw Burzynski in human blood and urine can control cancer growth.
It says the therapy is an experimental treatment offered at the Houston clinic and Chinese patients can go to the US for treatment after undergoing appraisal and making payment.
It says the antineoplaston therapy is currently only available at the clinic as part of clinical trials.
However, Li said in his blog that antineoplastons were not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the prevention or treatment of any disease and the therapy was only in the second phase of clinical trials in the US, which means the medicine is not allowed to be marketed to cancer patients.
"It is suspected that Chinese patients have been tricked into going to America to be laboratory rats," Li said.
Shanghai Daily called the representative office yesterday, but staff there said the officials were all in meeting.
Officials from Shanghai Food and Drug Administration said that in the US all medicines must pass a third phase of clinical trials before being marketed.
If a US medical facility is recruiting Chinese patients to take part in trials, the treatment must be offered free of charge, be under the supervision of an independent panel of experts and be in line with international practice and relevant regulations, they said.
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