7/14/2011 PERMALINK
Two patients undergo stem-cell blindness treatments. In a bid to harness the potential of embryonic stem cells for eyesight regeneration, Steven Schwartz, chief of the retina division at the Jules Stein Eye Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles implanted lab-grown retinal cells into the eyes of two patients going blind from macular degeneration. They were financed by Advanced Cell Technology, a biotech company that recently won approval from the U.S. FDA gestapo to test the treatment in 24 patients suffering from advanced macular degeneration.
Never forget that FDA's obsolete regulator process is the largest road-block preventing the arrival of a new golden age of personalized medicine, where each cure can be tailored to each patient unique genetic makeup. The holocaust from this regulator-created delay already numbers in the millions of needless deaths annually. Politicos and the mainstream media never notice this, but they will scream loudly if any new medical technology goes to market and causes any harm to even a few patients. Our politicos have given us a perfectly designed feedback loop for producing a slowing of medical innovation into an eventual stagnation. Future practitioners of genetic personalized medicine will one-day exceed the capabilities of our current doctors by more than they exceed the capabilities of witch doctors. Yet the way medical regulation is currently being practiced, especially in the USA. The arrival of this far more humane new era of medicine is likely to be delayed for decades.