The PennZone

BROOKEVILLE, Md. - PennZone -- Exclusive: How a small group of patient advocates and biotech companies tricked the Utah legislature into passing a law which sets a precedent. Utah is now the first state to legalize therapy with stem cells from placenta tissue and cord blood.

Parent's Guide to Cord Blood Foundation is a small non-profit in the biotech space. We are the first to break the story that the Utah state legislature did not realize what they were voting for when they passed Utah S.B. 199.

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The FDA still considers unapproved stem cell therapies to be illegal, and when it comes to drug regulations, federal law takes supremacy. This is not the same as states ignoring federal law and legalizing recreational drugs. In the case of stem cell therapy, patients that receive unregulated products with insufficient oversight could suffer serious adverse events. The new law Utah S.B. 199 is going to trigger a showdown between the federal government and Utah. Doctors who administer therapy to patients under the new Utah law could be sued by the Dept. of Justice. At a bare minimum, we are calling for the state of Utah to establish oversight of this arena before patients are hurt.