4 Philippine hospitals can perform stem cell procedures

MANILA, Philippines – Only four hospitals in the Philippines are accredited to perform stem cell procedures, the Department of Health said yesterday.

These are The Medical City – Institute of Personalized Medicine, Asian Stem Cell Institute, Makati Medical Center – Cellular Therapeutics Center, and Lung Center of the Philippines – Molecular Diagnostics and Cellular Therapeutics Laboratory.

The four health facilities have met the requirements that the DOH set in 2013 in providing stem cell treatments, Health Facilities and Services Regulatory Bureau Director Nicolas Lutero III said in an advisory.

He said stem cell treatments allowed to be performed in the Philippines are hematopoietic stem cell transplantation; corneal resurfacing with limbal stem cells, and skin regeneration with epidermal stem cells.

“Please inform the DOH of any person/s or institution/s administering stem cells without accreditation or using stem cells for other indications not yet approved by the FDA,” he said.