At the end of 2014 the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) and Swissmedic, in partnership with the cantons, initiated an action plan to combat non-authorized fresh cell therapies. The outcome at the end of the campaign: Swissmedic issued rulings against manufacturers and suppliers of non-authorized animal tissue preparations in four cases. Three of these cases are still pending with the Federal Administrative Court. Objections were lodged against 14 websites because of misleading claims.

https://www.swissmedic.ch/swissmedic/en/home/news/mitteilungen/archive/action-plan-to-combat-illegal-fresh-cell-therapies.html

GERMANS will no longer be allowed to have tissue from sheep fetuses injected into their buttocks. Several thousand people in Germany undergo this procedure each year, believing that the fetal cells have rejuvenating properties. But health officials in Bonn said last week that they had decided to ban the practice, pointing to severe immune reactions in some patients.

Fresh cell therapy, as the treatment is known, was pioneered by a Swiss doctor, Paul Niehans, in the 1930s. It became quite popular in Germany in the 1950s after the public learnt that Chancellor Konrad Adenauer had received the treatment. Adenauer remained in power until 1963, when he was 87.

The treatment is currently available at eight sanitoriums in Germany and one in Switzerland. Each sanatorium maintains its own flock of sheep. When several patients are scheduled for treatment, workers slaughter a pregnant ewe, remove the fetus and inject just under a gram of fetal tissue into each patient. “The whole procedure only takes half an hour,” says Matthias Fuchs, an official in the German Ministry of Health.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg15320660-500-germany-bans-rejuvenating-sheep-cell-injections/#ixzz5zC4BNPZE

Swiss authorities say they have opened a criminal case against several unidentified health clinics and providers as part of a broader crackdown on hospitals and private clinics that illegally treat patients using unauthorized fresh cell therapy.

But the Federal Health Office and the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products warned that such therapy is not scientifically proven and the products are unauthorized because they “represent a significant risk to health.”

The therapy, which the agencies said is popular with tourists from China, Russia and the Middle East, has been offered as treatment for “anti-aging”, migraine headaches, chronic diseases and cancer.
“Recently, various hospitals and private Swiss clinics have been offering illegal fresh cell therapies potentially dangerous to health,” the agencies said in a joint statement. “These therapies involve injecting cells or cell extracts taken from sheep fetuses or placenta, promising to rejuvenate the patient.”

Federal authorities say they warned the health care clinics and other providers of the risks of the therapy, which include allergies, abscesses caused by injections, and transmission of pathogens from animals to the patient.

“This intervention aims to prevent the production or use of illegal preparations for use in fresh cell therapy in Switzerland,” the authorities said, adding that their primary intention is to protect the health of foreign patients.

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/cell-therapy_swiss-regulators-get-tough-on-illegal-fresh-cell-therapy/41347310

Healthy new-born babies may have been killed in Ukraine to feed a flourishing international trade in stem cells, evidence obtained by the BBC suggests.

Disturbing video footage of post-mortem examinations on dismembered tiny bodies raises serious questions about what happened to them. Ukraine has become the self-styled stem cell capital of the world. There is a trade in stem cells from aborted foetuses, amid unproven claims they can help fight many diseases. But now there are claims that stem cells are also being harvested from live babies.

Wall of silence

The BBC has spoken to mothers from the city of Kharkiv who say they gave birth to healthy babies, only to have them taken by maternity staff. In 2003 the authorities agreed to exhume around 30 bodies of foetuses and full-term babies from a cemetery used by maternity hospital number six. One campaigner was allowed into the autopsy to gather video evidence. She has given that footage to the BBC and Council of Europe.

In its report, the Council describes a general culture of trafficking of children snatched at birth, and a wall of silence from hospital staff upwards over their fate. The pictures show organs, including brains, have been stripped - and some bodies dismembered. A senior British forensic pathologist says he is very concerned to see bodies in pieces - as that is not standard post-mortem practice.
It could possibly be a result of harvesting stem cells from bone marrow. Hospital number six denies the allegations.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6171083.stm