Hospital Galenia in Cancun, Mexico, where Celltex administers autologous mesenchymal stem cells to clientsKERRY GRENS
On a main thoroughfare running along the east side of Cancun, Mexico, sits Hospital Galenia, a small, private facility with crisp, white walls and slick marble floors. On a Friday morning in February, the lobby is quiet, its palm-filled courtyard unoccupied, belying activity in parts unseen, including an emergency room and a maternity ward.
Cancun’s beaches draw in visitors by the millions each year, while Galenia attracts a distinctive kind of tourist: those seeking health treatments not sanctioned by the U.S. and governments elsewhere. A number of medical tourism companies operate out of Galenia, including Houston-based Celltex Therapeutics, a company that offers stem cell therapies to mostly American customers. Celltex claims to use patients’ own mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to treat diseases as wide-ranging as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), renal failure, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Originally, Celltex administered cells to its clients out of a laboratory site in Sugar Land, Texas. But the company had to cease offering such treatments in Texas in 2013 after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent Celltex a warning letter ...
