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The U.S. health secretary said people should have access to experimental therapies including unregulated stem cells. But some methods have resulted in blindness, tumors and other injuries.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently declared that he wanted to expand access to experimental therapies but conceded that they could be risky or fraudulent.
In a podcast with Gary Brecka, who describes himself as a longevity expert, Mr. Kennedy vowed to end what he called the Food and Drug Administration’s war with alternative medicine. He said that would include stem cells, vitamins, peptides and chelation therapy, which involves removing heavy metals from the blood.
“If you want to take an experimental drug — you can do that, you ought to be able to do that,” Mr. Kennedy said.
“And of course you’re going to get a lot of charlatans, and you’re going to get people who have bad results,” he added. “And ultimately, you can’t prevent that either way. Leaving the whole thing in the hands of pharma is not working for us.”
Mr. Kennedy cited his own experience at a clinic in Antigua, where he said he received a stem cell treatment that “enormously” eased his neurological condition, spasmodic dysphonia, which affects his voice and has few treatment options.
If Mr. Kennedy does permit broader use of unauthorized or experimental therapies, he would be reversing longstanding efforts by the F.D.A. to monitor and sometimes police the emerging field. Experts, including some who support alternative medicine, worry that without safeguards, an expansion of such treatments could undermine legitimate development of new therapies.