Stem Cell Therapy: A Rising Tide: How Stem Cells Are Disrupting Medicine and Transforming Lives

Book Preface

BY ARNOLD CAPLAN, PHD

Neil Riordan, PhD, PA is a pioneer of the highest order, in some ways like John Glenn or Neil Armstrong. Neil has ventured where the routes were uncharted and the dangers huge. His rocket of cell therapy was launched on a rickety platform filled with hopes and dreams, and powered by an engine of money. This pioneer has hacked his way through the jungle of naysayers and has produced miracles of enormous proportions. He has taken our scientific dreams and translated them into a high-caliber medical facility that does good by offering exposure to cell therapy treatments that we working scientists only dream about.

Although there are those in my professional realm who would say that Neil is a medical “cowboy” who “experiments” with human subjects, I would say that he is providing access to therapies that are no more experimental than one sees every single day in the surgical suites of major medical centers. In such situations, the surgeon is “forced” to improvise because of the complexity of the wound field. Such improvisation sometimes involves using materials that are not approved but that the surgeon “feels” will work well in the situation he faces. For example, human decellularized skin from dead people was approved for topical applications for ulcerated wounds in diabetic patients. But these “membranes” are fabulous for closing abdominal surgical wounds in hernia repair operations and have changed the way such closures are done. This surgical improvision, originally performed by a “cowboy”

surgeon, is now the standard of care. We move forward in medicine by the skill and insightful work of pioneers—some with IRB approval and some not.

Riordan’s procedures with MSCs currently have IRB approvals.

In a sense of transparency, let me say that I have accepted honoraria from Neil Riordan and gifts of hotel rooms, meals, and, indeed, infusions of MSCs.

These all have monetary value, but none influences my opinion. The

monetary success of Neil’s enterprises evoke jealousy in some entrepreneurs, but Neil’s continual reinvestment of money into his next medically successful enterprise displays his true motives—the advancement of a medically necessary science despite great obstacles. The key to his success is in the enormously high quality of his facilities; the people, doctors, nurses, receptionist, PR team, etc. are all highly principled and care about the patients they serve. These people care about what they do because Neil recruits them for their skills and attitude. He does not discuss this in this book, but they are present on every page. He talks about Dr. Paz, but he does not tell you of his long medical experience and his reputation in the United States and in Panama for caring and experienced medical judgements. In all of Neil’s clinics, quality control labs, hotels for patients, and restaurants where they eat, the staff behind the scenes are dedicated to providing the highest quality medical care possible. Some clinics and hospitals in the United States could take lessons from the Riordan gang. That said, the cell-based therapies Neil’s clinics provide have not all been approved and tested by double-blind, placebo control and rigorously monitored clinical trials, although such trials are currently underway. But, like innovative surgeons, these open-label uses have proven effective, as hopefully we will see in published peer-reviewed reports of his studies.

Each chapter of this book recounts the personal stories of how Neil’s unwavering confidence that cell-based therapies with MSC preparations from fat, marrow, or umbilical cords can make a medical difference. Neil made medical tourism work, and what he has done is highly laudable, not only because of the patients he has helped, but because of the laws that have been written to support cell-based therapies in Panama. This book is not what I pleaded with Neil to write, however. I have, for many years, begged him to give us outcome reports of his many patients: what they have as clinical problems, what they walk in with, and the longitudinal outcomes after the cell infusions. Hopefully these will be forthcoming, but they are not in this book. What is here in these pages is, none-the-less, amazing.

I first learned about Neil’s clinic in Costa Rica and thought his procedures and therapies were brilliant. And these were crude compared to those currently underway in Panama. The Panama GMP-production facilities, his offices and treatment rooms, and the products including MSCs from umbilical tissue are of the highest quality. These are the vehicles and the platform that allow him to write this treatise of the therapies they provide. It is a shame that we have to fly to Panama to have access to these therapies instead of having them available in the United States. How long will it take for such therapies to be available to the patients covered by Medicaid or Medicare instead of those from Beverly Hills or Long Island who can afford to travel to Panama?

Almost daily I receive emails from people who want access to “stem cell”

treatments. I tell them that I am just a PhD researcher and cannot suggest an avenue of treatment for medical issues. If you have this book in hand, read the chapters. They are honest, open, and spellbinding. While Neil is not a medical doctor, his clinical experience as a physician assistant along with his research background have prepared him for the serious medical issues for which Neil has organized cell therapy treatments, often with quite significant outcomes. Neil is certainly a student of the medical arts and an expert using innovative treatments. I have talked to patients of Neil’s clinics and their family members about their treatments; the stories told in this book are just the tip of the iceberg. This is an interesting book and an interesting and gutsy journey of Neil Riordan. His physician father would be proud to recognize Neil’s passion and medical achievements.

Arnold I. Caplan, PhD

Skeletal Research Center

Department of Biology

Case Western Reserve University

10600 Euclid Avenue

Cleveland, Ohio 44106

January 15, 2017