Autistic Children Receiving Unapproved Stem Cell Injections Backed by Health Secretary RFK Jr
Clinics in Florida, Texas, and other states are selling unproven stem cell infusions for autistic children at costs up to $20,000 per treatment, with no scientific evidence of efficacy. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has publicly endorsed the practice at industry summits and appointed a leading advocate to a federal autism research committee. The FDA warns that such treatments offered outside approved clinical trials are likely illegal and have been linked to serious complications including blindness and tumor formation.
Clinics across the US are injecting autistic children as young as 18 months with umbilical cord stem cells in procedures costing up to $20,000, despite no scientific evidence of benefit and explicit FDA warnings that such unapproved treatments are likely illegal. The most rigorous clinical trial to date, conducted by Duke University on 180 children, found insignificant benefits. Health Secretary RFK Jr. has appeared by video at industry summits promoting these therapies, told attendees their cause is 'no longer on the fringe,' and appointed summit organizer Tracy Slepcevic to a federal autism research committee. Some providers are now planning a new trial involving 120 autistic children to be conducted in Tijuana, Mexico, with possible expansion to US sites. Other clinics are misrepresenting the federal Right to Try Act — which applies only to terminally ill patients — to market the treatments as legally compliant. Kennedy has simultaneously defunded $31 million in autism-related research, fired thousands of federal health officials, and acknowledged that opening the market to alternative providers will inevitably attract 'charlatans,' while saying such outcomes cannot be prevented.
What's missing
The article does not detail what regulatory or enforcement actions, if any, the FDA has taken against specific clinics currently operating, nor whether any state medical boards have investigated or sanctioned providers offering these treatments.
What different sources said
‘Autistic kids are being experimented on’: inside America’s booming market for unproven stem cell infusions
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