mother and son caught in stem cell scandal - smh

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The Sydney Morning Herald smh.com.au Monday, September 4, 2006 News 5

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Costellosupportsfloat ofMedibankPhillip CooreyPolitical Correspondent

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‘I would like to seeserious work done onoffering it to the public.’PETER COSTELLO, Treasurer

A PUBLIC float of Medibank Pri-vate appears most likely after theTreasurer, Peter Costello, threwhis weight behind the idea.

Mr Costello indicated yesterdaythat, as reported by the Herald onSaturday, the health fund’s3 million policyholders would re-ceive beneficial treatment in afloat to sweeten the process.

‘‘I would like to see us verycarefully examine the possibilityof offering Medibank to the pub-lic, particularly to policyholders,’’Mr Costello told the Nine Net-work’s Sunday program.

‘‘The usual thing would be tojust sell Medibank Private toanother health fund and youwould get a larger health fund.

‘ ‘But I would l ike to seeserious work done on offering itto the public.’’

He hinted that a privatisedMedibank would be transformedinto a for-profit fund when he

said that policyholders wouldhave an added incentive to buyshares by benefiting from thecompany’s growth.

The Treasurer said a publiclylisted health fund ‘‘would be a bitof a first’’ and might lead toreform in the increasingly expen-sive industry.

The Government is consider-ing offering Medibank’s policy-holders a guaranteed al lo-cation of shares or a discount ontheir purchase.

‘ ‘We’ve got to get to thisdecision [about a share float]before we work that out, ’ ’a Coalition spokesman saidyesterday.

Giving Medibank’s customersfree shares is not an optionbecause the Governmentbelieves it, not the members,

owns the fund and should profitfrom its sale.

Cabinet has agreed to sellMedibank, which is worth about$1.5 billion, but has not decidedwhether to float it or sell it it toanother company or institution.

The Finance Minister, NickMinchin, will make the finaldecision in consultation withsenior colleagues.

He is waiting for advice fromthe investment bank Carnegie,Wylie and the Australian Compe-tition and Consumer Com-mission, which is investigatingany competition issues that mayarise from the sale. Like MrCostello, he favours a share floatrather than a trade sale.

A decision is expected in thenext two weeks, but the timing ofthe sale will depend on whetherthe Government can sell$8 billion in Telstra shares asplanned before Christmas.

Labor voiced its opposition toselling Medibank, saying it sup-ported neither a share float nor atrade sale.

The shadow minister forhealth, Julia Gillard, said sellingor floating Medibank wouldreduce competition in the indus-try and push up premiums,which have risen 40 per centsince 2001.

Late on Friday Labor referredto a Parliamentary Library reportthat said the Government wasthe legal owner of Medibank butdid not own its assets.

Fund members had rights tothe benefits of the fund andassociated assets, it said.

Senator Minchin dismissedthe findings and said legal adviceshowed the Government ownedthe lot and was entitled to sell it.

Mr Costello would not bedrawn on Telstra yesterday, say-ing he could not offer the publicany advice on whether to buythe shares.

‘‘Telstra has got its strengthsand if that fits in and youhave got some cash and youbelieve that the prospectus isthe one that appeals to you,wel l, make your decisionaccordingly,’’ he said.

Rough trot to the track makes champions of also-rans

Winners are a bonus ... raceday fashions at Birdsville are often as unorthodox as the horses that win there. Photo: Steve Christo

Daniel LewisRegional Reporter

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IT IS 125 years since they first ranAustralia’s most famous outbackrace meeting at Birdsville.

Over the weekend the tinysouth-west Queensland townagain attracted the bush trainerswho are the great nomads of thethoroughbred industry. Theyhad come from Winton, Quorn,Armidale, Barcaldine, MountIsa, Tamworth, Port Lincoln andLongreach.

They travel vast distances andoften roll out their swags for racemeetings in places few citypeople have ever heard of, suchas Louth and Enngonia.

They love Birdsville for the bigprizemoney, the partyatmosphere created bythousands of spectators and thefact it can make champions ofeven the worst horses.

Birdsville is so far fromanywhere that just abouteveryone has to travel severaldays to get there and the journeyincludes hundreds of bone-shaking kilometres over reddunes and gibber plains.

The Nyngan trainer RodneyRobb says the road to Birdsville isthe greatest leveller in Australianracing. After three days on theroad, he arrived last Tuesday andstabled his six horses next to thetree on the banks of DiamantinaRiver where Burke and Willsonce camped. In the comingweeks he will do hundreds morekilometres travelling on to theoutback race meetings atBedourie and Betoota.

On such long journeys horsescan get fatigued, dehydrated, gooff their food, suffer travelsickness and injure each other bykicking and biting.

To his amazement, Robb wonthe Birdsville Cup in 1999 with a

gelding called Amirreb. ‘‘I neverhad much time for him,’’ Robbsaid, ‘‘but the conditions suitedhim. He came here, he travelledwell, he ate, he drank, he was upfor it. He was a very ordinaryhorse and I reckon I have had

500 better than him, but theyprobably wouldn’t be able to winat Birdsville.’’

Robb spends about threemonths each year on the roadgoing to race meetings as farafield as Balranald, Alice

Springs, Darwin and Broken Hill.His parents were drovers and

that’s where he got his love of lifeon the road. ‘‘I think I’m drovinghalf the time. I love the lifestyle.Horse people are good people.Racing’s been good to me.’’

For the Condobolin owner andtrainer Mark Ward, race horsesare merely an excuse to get awayfrom the farm and have some fun.

‘‘If a winner comes along,that’s a bonus,’’ he said.‘‘Everyone’s here for the party.’’

Mother and toddler caught in stem cell scamJane Lyons

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Deceived ... Sibel Reagin and herson Ethan. Photo: BBC

A SYDNEY mother determined tofind treatment for her brain-damaged son has become the un-witting victim of an apparent in-ternational stem cell scam.

Sibel Reagin’s three-year-oldson, Ethan, is one of at least threeAustralians who have been in-jected with cord blood stem cellsnever intended for human use.

After meningitis left Ethanseverely brain damaged a yearago, his mother was told hewould not survive but he foughtback against the odds.

Then Ms Reagin heard about afamily friend in Sydney whoselittle boy had regained movementafter a spinal injury from a caraccident. He had received an in-jection of stems cells derived fromumbilical cord blood at a Rotter-dam clinic that was being extolledin the international media.

With the help of family andfriends, Ms Reagin raised the$34,000 fee and set off for theNetherlands in July.

‘‘You grieve for the child thatyou lost, but it doesn’t mean youlove them any less when some-thing happens to them or atragedy takes place,’’ she told theHerald. ‘‘And so you have everybit of hope and faith that youhave got to give your child everychance that you can so they canregain that life they had before.’’

But her excitement turned toanger when a BBC documentaryteam uncovered the cells’ source.‘‘I feel deceived, duped,’’ she said.

Last week Newsnight revealedthat Advanced Cell Therapeutics,the biotech company behind thetreatment, had been buying thecells for only $US900 ($1174) ashot from a US company, AllCells,which sold them for in vitro re-search purposes only.

AllCells’ general manager, JayTong, was shocked to learn thecells were being injected intopeople. He said they were notguaranteed free from bacterialor viral contamination.

Two former employees of Ad-vanced Cell Therapeutics said

one of its founders, Laura Brown,had written the certificates ver-ifying the cells’ purity.

Stem cells from cord blood areused in Australia to treat blood-related illnesses such as leu-kaemia. Scientists say their effi-cacy in treating other conditionshas not been clinically proven.

Advanced Cell Therapeutics’website says the company hastreated 500 patients with 80 dis-eases including multiple scler-osis, autism, cerebral palsy,spinal cord injury, brain damage,Parkinson’s and diabetes.

‘‘Benefits have ranged frommild to full restoration in manyareas of degenerative diseaseand injury,’’ it says.

Brown, an American ex-model,and her South African businesspartner, Steven Van Rooyen, arefighting extradition orders fromSouth Africa to the US. The USFood and Drug Administration

laid 51 charges against them inMarch for selling fraudulent stemcell therapies through a previouscompany, Biomark International.

Bob Williamson, chairman ofthe National Committee for Medi-cine from the Australian Academyof Science, said patients withsevere neurological diseases hadapproached him about stem celltransplants overseas.

‘‘Unfortunately, I have to tellthem that there is no data what-soever to support the use of hu-man stem cells to treat severedisorders such as Alzheimer’sdisease, Friedreich ataxia or mul-tiple sclerosis,’’ Professor Wil-liamson said.

‘‘In the absence of evidence,people are being given false hopeand are taken advantage of bothfinancially and emotionally.’’

The Dutch health inspectorateis investigating the PreventativeMedicine Clinic, the clinic where

Ethan was treated, after com-plaints from neurologists.

Clinics administering Ad-vanced Cell Therapeutics’ stemcell therapy have been found inSouth Africa, Spain, the Nether-lands, India and Mexico. TheIrish Medicines Board recentlyclosed a clinic in Ireland.

Ms Reagin is now looking intocompensation.

However, she believes herstory has a moral for the Aus-tralian Government. ‘‘Peoplewant these treatments and it’s go-ing to happen anyway. TheGovernment should come onboard and form legislation thatmakes it foolproof.’’

Advanced Cell Therapeuticsoriginally welcomed an inter-view. Three emails and twophone calls later, its media de-partment asked for a list of ques-tions. Emails now bounce backand the phone has been cut off.