Under federal district court orders announced today, the co-founders of the Stem Cell Institute of America and several related companies are banned from marketing stem cell therapy in the future. The order resolves a complaint filed jointly by the Federal Trade Commission and Georgia Attorney General\u2019s Office. A separate order requires the defendants to pay\u00a0$5,155,146 in\u00a0both civil penalties and refunds to defrauded consumers on Georgia\u2019s state law claims.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe founders of the Stem Cell Institute of America and their network of companies tricked people who needed real medical help into buying expensive, unproven stem cell therapy,\u201d said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC\u2019s Bureau of Consumer Protection. \u201cThe court\u2019s orders hold them accountable, refund consumers, and permanently ban the defendants from offering stem cell therapy and other regenerative medicine treatment in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
The agencies\u2019 2021\u00a0complaint<\/a> named Steven D. Peyroux and Brent J. Detelich; Regenerative Medicine Institute of America, LLC, doing business as Stem Cell Institute of America, LLC (SCIA); Physicians Business Solutions, LLC (PBS); and Superior Healthcare, LLC (SHC) as defendants.<\/p>\n In 2015, Peyroux, a chiropractor, and Detelich, a former chiropractor, co-founded SCIA, a company that trained chiropractors and other healthcare practitioners how to\u00a0deceptively market unproven stem cell therapy\u00a0in their practices. SCIA trained its client clinics how to recruit patients through advertising, host free \u201ceducational seminars,\u201d and conduct consultations. SCIA provided its clients access to a \u201cvault\u201d of sample advertisements rife with baseless claims of efficacy, and the appearance of being part of a nationwide SCIA network.<\/p>\n The defendants also used these deceptive marketing materials and \u201ceducational seminars\u201d to attract stem cell patients to their own chiropractic clinic, SHC. SHC charged\u00a0up to $5,000 per stem cell therapy injection, with many patients receiving more than one injection as part of their treatment. The group of\u00a0consumers who purchased defendants\u2019 unproven stem cell therapy consisted almost exclusively of elderly and disabled people.<\/p>\n Following extensive litigation, in March 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia issued a summary judgment opinion and order<\/a> in favor of the FTC and the State of Georgia on all counts. In granting summary judgment, the court found that the defendants created and published false and misleading advertisements about the efficacy and approval of stem cell therapy injection treatments for a host of medical conditions (osteoarthritis, neuropathy, joint pain, and more), and embarked on a comprehensive marketing campaign to distribute those ads to the public and to other medical clinics across the county.<\/p>\n On December 26, 2024, the court issued orders for injunctive<\/a> and monetary relief<\/a>. The first order permanently bans the defendants from advertising, marketing, promoting, offering for sale, or selling any regenerative medicine treatments, including any treatment or therapy that falls under the definition of stem cell therapy.<\/p>\n It also prohibits\u00a0them from misrepresenting that any regenerative medicine compliance training program is approved by either the FTC or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Finally, it prohibits the defendants from providing\u00a0others with the means of making false and misleading statements about regenerative medical treatment.<\/p>\n The second order, based on Georgia\u2019s state law claims, requires\u00a0Peyroux and Detelich to\u00a0pay $3,310,146 that may be used to provide refunds to defrauded consumers,\u00a0and Peyroux,\u00a0Detelich, and PBS to pay\u00a0$1,845,000 in civil\u00a0penalties, resulting in a total monetary penalty of $5,155,146.<\/p>\n The litigation was handled by attorneys Elizabeth Nach, Robert Van Someren Greve, Stacy Cammarano, and Cassandra Rasmussen and investigators Sallie Schools and Kenneth Chrzanowski from the FTC\u2019s Bureau of Consumer Protection. The FTC appreciates the partnership of the Georgia Attorney General\u2019s Office in bringing the action announced today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Under federal district court orders announced today, the co-founders of the Stem Cell Institute of America and several related companies are banned from marketing stem cell therapy in the future. The order resolves a complaint filed jointly by the Federal Trade Commission and Georgia Attorney General\u2019s Office. A separate order requires the defendants to pay\u00a0$5,155,146 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":10732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Seal_of_the_United_States_Federal_Trade_Commission.svg_.png?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbtNqq-32Z","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5171,"url":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/ftc-order-to-bar-zycal-bioceuticals-from-deceptive-health-marketing\/","url_meta":{"origin":11717,"position":0},"title":"FTC Order to Bar ZyCal Bioceuticals from Deceptive Health Marketing","author":"Admin","date":"February 6, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Company claimed its product could grow bone and cartilage, relieve joint pain ZyCal Bioceuticals The Federal Trade Commission today\u00a0announced an order\u00a0settling a 2020 federal lawsuit against defendants ZyCal Bioceuticals Healthcare Company, Inc. 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Orders for Injunctive and Monetary Relief<\/h2>\n