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Another kind of stem cell tragedy: William P. Murphy passes at 100 – The Niche

It’s kind of a tragedy that William P. Murphy, former chairman of unproven stem cell clinic firm, US Stem Cell, might be most remembered after his recent passing for his doings there. 

For example, I didn’t know until now of his prolific past as a biomedical inventor who did a lot of good.

Instead, my impression of him has been almost entirely that of a guy mysteriously being chairman of a clinic firm that has hurt people and run into all kinds of trouble.

William P. Murphy, US Stem Cell
William P. Murphy in his Florida home. Photo from Mike Tomas.

Overall, Murphy’s background and achievements are quite impressive.

Son of a Nobel laureate, Murphy seemed to have a knack both for medicine and engineering. He put these things to good use including for the development of early vinyl bags for medical use. These bags likely saved thousands of lives. He invented many other things too.

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William P. Murphy and US Stem Cell

How did he end up being a leader of US Stem Cell, a firm selling non-FDA-approved and non-scientifically proven stem cells?

He became Chairman of the firm Bioheart, which sadly morphed at some point into US Stem Cell.

Murphy stayed on. Over the years, he invested millions of his own money in the company too.

This clinic firm marketed fat cell injections for many different diseases, eventually running afoul of the FDA. The agency now has a court-affirmed permanent injunction on the firm.

A subsidiary of US Stem Cell called US Stem Cell Clinic had several customers lose their vision after getting fat cells injected into their eyes, which may have sparked the FDA action.

Even after that, Murphy still stuck with the clinic firm for a time, which is a real mystery to me.

Does US Stem Cell have a future? If it does, it will have to move forward without one of its strongest supporters in Murphy.

Last year, Dr. Mark Berman, the leader of another firm marketing fat cells via clinics, also passed away but of COVID.

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