Controversial Bioethicist Resigns From Celltex

ananyo writes "Bioethicist Glenn McGee has resigned his position as president of ethics and strategic initiatives at the stem-cell firm Celltex Therapeutics in Houston, Texas. Yesterday, Slashdot posted a story that suggested Celltex may have administered unproven treatments to several patients. The move comes at the end of a turbulent three months, which has seen McGee blasted by other bioethicists for working at the controversial stem-cell company while also holding the post of editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Bioethics, the most cited bioethics journal in the world. McGee announced that he had resigned, effective 28 February, on Twitter last night — the move came just two weeks after the 13 February press release by Celltex announcing that he would take the position."

Re:Well... how else are you gona prove them?

[Demonantis]

There many instances of the doctor writing the individual off as almost dead when they live for years afterwards. Doctors currently can't predict how long you are going to live accurately enough to legitimize allowing them to give experimental treatment to people they think have a month to live.

Way to go.

[subreality]

blasted by other bioethicists for working at the controversial stem-cell company

Fail. This is exactly the kind of company that we want a bioethicist working for.

Re:With clinical trials

[ananyo]

Yep exactly. There are two problems here.
1. Celltex hasn't done any clinical trials of any sort. To prove a treatment works you need a double-blind trial at least - administer placebo to one group, and the cells to another and make sure the physician in charge doesn't know which one is being given to which patient. Then when you 'unblind' the trial and reveal which patient got what - that's when (if it's worked) you start charging. In the trial phase, a company should be providing the treatment free with placebo and working with the FDA. They shouldn't be charging for voodoo treatments/homeopathy.
2. Big conflict of interest for McGee from the start - it's difficult to claim you can independently assess papers on bioethics, when many of the papers are likely to be about stem cells and trials but you're being paid by a firm that is growing stem cells.

As the (accidentally unlinked when I submitted) Nature story [nature.com] says, McGee claimed he hoped by being inside the company, he could push them to do trials properly. When it became clear they were already treating patients and probably weren't too interested in testing the treatments, he quit. At least, that's one interpretation....