The foreign version of Putian Hospital is going to be in trouble: Google bans unverified and unscientific medical ads

Guo Yipu from Zhongguancun
Quantum Bit Report | Public Account QbitAI

Today, Google took an important step towards regulating medical advertising.

They announced that stem cell therapy, cell therapy, gene therapy... these unproven or scientifically unfounded medical products can no longer be advertised on Google.

In simple terms, those foreign version of Putian hospitals that hold up various seemingly advanced medical banners but are actually scammers have been completely cut off from acquiring customers through Google ads.

Google's New Policy

In the "New Policy for Speculative and Experimental Medical Ads" announced by Google today, it is clearly stated that Google prohibits the widespread promotion of unproven or experimental medical technologies, such as most stem cell therapies, cell therapies and gene therapies; and prohibits the sale of medical advertisements that have no scientific basis.

In addition, medical products that have only been discovered through basic scientific research and have undergone preliminary clinical trials but have not yet been proven through formal clinical trials are also prohibited.

If foreign people who are sick and try all kinds of medical treatment use Google to search for disease-related content, they don’t have to worry about being deceived by medical advertisements on search engines.

Stem cell clinic, the foreign version of "Putian Hospital"

In 2016, Stem Cell, a subsidiary of Cell, published a study saying that at least 351 clinics in the United States provide untested stem cell treatments.

These clinics often claim to treat diseases such as macular degeneration, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis and degenerative lung disease, but in reality, such therapies have never been approved by regulators.

According to The Washington Post, in 2016, an old lady had stem cells injected into her eyes to treat macular degeneration. Within a few weeks, the retina of her left eye detached, and within a few months she quickly became blind.

△ Victim, picture from The Washington Post

There are at least four other patients who have had similar experiences.

Differentiate between scammers and researchers

Now, those practitioners who are doing stem cell research seriously and not cheating people are also very supportive.

“Google’s new policy banning speculative drug ads is a much-needed and welcome step to curb the marketing of unproven medical products such as stem cell therapies,” said Deepak Srivastava, president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. “While stem cells have the potential to help us understand and treat a wide range of diseases, most stem cell interventions remain experimental and can only be offered to patients in well-regulated clinical trials.”

He also said that premature marketing and commercialization of unproven stem cell products threatens public health, reduces public confidence in biomedical research, and undermines the development of legitimate new treatments.

The implication is nothing more than complaining about these scammers who claim to be offering stem cell treatments and have muddied the waters in the industry, making serious stem cell researchers too embarrassed to say what they do when they go out.

Therefore, Google’s new policy is not a one-size-fits-all approach. In these unproven fields of medical technology, there are still people doing serious research, so clinical trial ads that are clearly used for research are allowed.

However, this is a global start, especially setting a precedent for search engines.

What do you think?