Medical council to punish doctors who do stemcell therapy

"We want to protect patients from unsafe stemcell treatments which have not yet been approved as standard medical treatment," he said.

The move comes after reports that physicians working in state and private hospitals had been using stemcell therapy to cure chronic diseases such as heart failure, Parkinson's disease and diabetes. There is no proof yet that stemcell therapy can treat these diseases and there is potential for harm to patients.

In three months the Medical Council will announce regulations for physicians who provide stemcell therapy. Any who violate the regulations will have their medical licences revoked.

Somsak said physicians would only be allowed to provide stemcell therapy based on scientific research and approved by the council as standard treatment

Stemcell transplants for medical research in humans must be approved by three organisations - the ethical committee of the Researcher's Organisation, the National Academic Committee to Approve Stem Cell Research in Humans and the Public Health Ministry's committee to approve human trials.

Physicians providing stemcell therapy treatment will need to be certified by the Medical Council.

Somsak said the Food and Drug Administration had banned the advertising and sale of cosmetics that contain stemcell material.

To date, the Medical Council has approved only the using of bonemarrow transplant to treat leukaemia as a standard treatment. This has been used for more than 40 years.

However, he believes that in the near future stemcell therapy will become standard treatment as scientific research advances.