September 08, 2012 10:01 PM

A Brownsville man admitted to charging a couple more than $8,000 to perform an unapproved stem-cell procedure on their child who had experienced neurological problems after nearly drowning.

Francisco Morales, 52, has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to introduce misbranded and unapproved drugs into interstate commerce, U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson announced Friday.

Lawrence Stowe, 59, of Illinois, pleaded guilty to the same charges.

These pleas are a victory for the American public, in demonstrating the FDAs commitment to investigating cases of individuals and businesses that prey on the sick and vulnerable with phony medical treatments, said Patrick J. Holland of the Food and Drug Administrations Office of Criminal Investigations.

Alberto Ramon, 50, of Del Rio, and Vincent Dammai, 42, of Mount Pleasant, S.C., are also charged in the case and will go to trial in late November.

Magidson said in a press release that Morales and Stowe both falsely represented that they were licensed to practice medicine and that they each operated medical clinics in Brownsville.

In January 2006, Stowe admitted that he started using Stowe BioTherapy Inc. and The Stowe Foundation to advertise and promote a medical treatment protocol for several neurological diseases that have no cures.

The treatment was called Applied Biologics and consisted of supplements, vaccines, patient specific transfer factors and stem cell therapy. Stowe told patients that the FDA reviewed the treatment and considered it effective for Lou Gehrigs disease, MS and Parkinsons. There are no cures for these diseases.

Stowe and Morales pleaded guilty to introducing an unapproved drug called Immune Factor G-40, and Stowe further admitted that he introduced an unapproved treatment called patient specific transfer factors.

Read more from the original source:
Details revealed in complicated stem-cell case