Couple in 'stem-cell witch-hunt'

2006-08-19 13:30

Marius Louw

Cape Town - A glamorous Cape Town millionaire couple, who are wanted by the US government on fraud charges, allege their prosecution is a stem-cell witch-hunt suppressing the right of patients to choose medical treatment.

Steve van Rooyen, 44, and Laura Brown, 35, from Llandudno spoke to Die Burger on Friday about an investigation by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Interpol. They were arrested in Johannesburg on June 10 after returning from the Seychelles.

They have been criticised in the international media as swindlers and fraudsters who made millions from the pain of others.

Provided stem-cells

They were accused of exploiting desperate patients by providing them with ampoules containing cord stem-cells from a registered laboratory.

Their clients from across the world suffered from neurological, degenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and cerebral palsy, as well as HIV, rheumatoid arthritis and asthma.

Their international company, Biomark International, acted as go-between between patients and the scientists who developed the stem-cell protocol.

The patients' own doctors or co-operating clinics, licensed by the company, administered the stem-cells by injection.

51 charges of fraud

The FDA in March this year laid 51 charges of fraud against the couple after apparently setting a trap for them in 2003.

Their business and personal bank accounts were frozen and computer equipment and records from their offices in Atlanta, Georgia, confiscated.

According to the charge sheet, they committed fraud 25 times by selling clinically unproven stem-cell therapy.

An additional 26 charges dealt with unmarked medicine containers transported across state boundaries for the same patients.

Legal advice

"We did nothing wrong," said Van Rooyen, a qualified attorney.

"When we started Biomark International in the US in 2002, we acted upon legal advice."

Brown, a former model in New York, Paris and Milan, believes President George W Bush's old-fashioned approach and large US pharmaceutical companies are behind their prosecution.

"The FDA is firstly a self-regulating industrial body. That means everyone involved has a financial interest in the pharmaceutical company."

Threat to pharmaceutical companies

Brown believes the pharmaceutical industry in the US does not allow competition and that biological treatment such as stem-cell techniques dramatically improve people?s conditions.

"That is the only threat stem-cell technology holds. It is not in the interest of pharmaceutical companies to heal people, as they would lose millions of dollars in income."

Stem-cell therapy is legal in 13 of the US states. "We operated only in these states."

Treatment safe

About the safety of the treatment, they said they had 800 patients suffering from 80 different diseases on their database, and none had shown any negative effects.

In April 2004 the couple registered a company, Advanced Cell Therapeutics, which made use of the same protocol and practice.

"We didn't want to feel persecuted by the authorities. Most of our clients and clinics are in Europe and that continent is years ahead in stem-cell research."

Their operations there, as well as the co-operating clinics conformed to the EU's standards and the European tissue laws, which were adopted in April.

- Die Burger