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The Gazette (Montreal)
June 25, 2005 Saturday
Final Edition
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A12
LENGTH: 471 words
BYLINE: MARGARET MUNRO, CanWest News Service

A Canadian doctor is under investigation for injecting stem cells into a desperately ill American who travelled to Toronto and paid $10,000 U.S. for the unauthorized and unproven treatment.

Tom Hill, an Atlanta businessman with a fatal neurodegenerative disease, was given the stem-cell injections in July 2003 by Christopher Goddard, a Vancouver physician. The treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, was offered in either Vancouver or Toronto, says Valerie Hill, who accompanied her husband. The visit was set up by BioMark International, one of many companies operating on the wild frontier of stem-cell medicine.

Hill's health continued to decline after the injections, Valerie said in an interview this week. He died in March 2004 at age 56.

Both Health Canada and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. launched investigations this week into Goddard's role in the treatments.

Scientists have extolled the potential curative power of stem cells for years, saying one day they may be used to repair or replace many diseased cells and tissues. The growing interest has spawned dozens of "cell-therapy" companies, which solicit patients over the Internet.

They typically charge up to $30,000 U.S. for injections of cells from aborted fetuses or umbilical cords at clinics outside the United States and Canada.

Medical experts say stem-cell therapy is years away from becoming a reality. There are some small clinical trials, but those are free to the patients, says Evan Snyder, a stem-cell authority at the Burnham Institute in California. "If they are asking for money, it's a shame," he says.

BioMark International is the subject of a criminal investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for charging for unproven and potentially dangerous cell therapies, FDA spokesperson Julie Zawisza says.

The Canadian connection first surfaced this spring in U.S. press reports on Hill's stem-cell injections. Valerie Hill says Goddard reassured the couple the therapy was legitimate. At the time, Goddard was medical director of Lifebank, which collects and stores stem-cell-rich umbilical cord blood. He resigned from Lifebank in April of this year.

Lifebank president Ernest Stacey said Goddard's involvement with BioMark was one of several factors in his departure.

Lifebank has cryogenically preserved about 4,000 cord blood samples from newborns. Parents pay it close to $1,000 to store the blood on the chance it might prove medically useful in future.

Stacey said the cells Goddard used did not come from Lifebank's freezers. "Absolutely not."

Goddard is licensed to practise in B.C. but not in Ontario. He did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.

BioMark, which moved its operation to Britain after the FDA shut down its U.S. operation last year, did not respond to queries.