Tag Archives: FDA CBER

♦ Only 4 Adverse Events Reported Against 570 Stem Cell Clinics

A Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request to the FDA has revealed only 4 reports of adverse events against a list of 570 U.S. stem cell clinics.

This low number of FOIA reports demonstrate that:

  • There is clearly not an established pattern of harm.
  • There is no significant trend of harm, just fear of harm.
  • Fear of harm is not a basis for crafting health policy. Proof of harm is as essential as proof of safety.

Pervasive hype, both overly positive and overly negative hurts us all. Dr. Feel Good and Chicken Little have no place at the table of social or health policy of such gravity to our lives and the lives of those we love.

Here is the response to the request, followed by links to the 4 reports.

Cc: “ORAHQ ACRA ESS FOI-DISCLOSURE STAFF”
Sent: Monday, August 22, 2016 2:45:07 PM
Subject: FOI Request 2016-6466

8/22/2016

Dear Requestor,
The attached records are being provided by the Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA)Information Disclosure in response to your request #2016-6466 dated 08/08/16 for records from the Food and Drug Administration pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act regarding:

ADVERSE EVENTS RE CELLULAR THERAPIES

Your request is granted in part.

After a thorough review of the responsive records, we have determined that portions of the documents are exempt from disclosure under FOIA exemptions (b)(4) and (b)(6) of the FOIA 5 U.S.C. § 552, as amended and delineated below:

Exemption (b)(4) permits the withholding of “trade secrets” (TS) and “commercial confidential information” (CCI). Disclosure of this information would impair the government’s ability to obtain necessary information in the future and cause substantial harm to the competitive position of the person from whom the information was obtained. Under the balancing test of this exemption, we are withholding all proprietary information identified as TS and CCI.

Exemption (b)(6) permits the withholding of information which, if released, would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. In this case, it was determined that there is no countervailing public interest qualifying under the standard set forth, under exemption (b)(6), to release the personal identifying information of certain third parties.
ORA considers your request closed. If you have any questions about this response, you may contact Anna Postell at 301-796-6488.

Sincerely,
Anna Postell
Program Analyst

These are the adverse event reports:
APPLIED_Consumer Complaint 127882_Redacted.pdf
APPLIED_Consumer Complaint 131004_Redacted.pdf
APPLIED_Consumer Complaint 141021_Redacted.pdf
APPLIED_Consumer Complaint 144501_Redacted.pdf

Note: The request was granted in part, This doesn’t mean there are more than 4 records and the FDA is withholding them. It means the privileged types of information (b)(4) and (b)(6) are not provided, which you can see have been redacted in all of the 4 records.


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