Google announced it will no longer permit on its platform advertising for medical techniques and treatments that are still "unproven or experimental," including most stem cell, cellular and gene therapies, according to a Sept. 6 blog post.
Banned treatments include those that lack an established biomedical or scientific basis, as well as those "rooted in basic scientific findings and preliminary clinical experience, but currently have insufficient formal clinical testing to justify widespread clinical use," per the new policy statement.
"While stem cells have great potential to help us understand and treat a wide range of diseases, most stem cell interventions remain experimental and should only be offered to patients through well-regulated clinical trials. The premature marketing and commercialization of unproven stem cell products threatens public health, their confidence in biomedical research and undermines the development of legitimate new therapies," Deepak Srivastava, MD, president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, said in the post.
The policy change stems from an increase in the number of "bad actors" offering potentially dangerous treatments, the company explained. To support "good actors" attempting to develop valid new treatments, however, Google will continue to allow ads for research related to clinical trials and for findings from that research.
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