Stem cell transplants will be available at the Brown-Darrell Clinic "in the not too distant future", Premier Ewart Brown told a conference in Boston, Massachusetts.

Dr. Brown gave an update on the project at Winterhaven, Smith's — delayed several months — while speaking about the benefits of medical tourism to an audience of healthcare leaders.

The Premier's speech came days after International Society for Stem Cell Research president George Daley announced new worldwide guidelines are being drawn up amid claims some stem cell clinics are offering false hope to desperately ill patients.

International doctors have previously spoken out about Bermuda's lack of stem cell legislations — with Dr. Daley saying he was very sceptical of anyone running experimental treatment in jurisdictions where there is no regulatory oversight.

Unlike in Bermuda, in the US, Canada and the UK, stem cell practice is heavily monitored by legislation introduced by those governments.

Brown-Darrell — a partnership between Dr. Brown, wife Wanda and California-based Stemedica — has pledged to welcome and encourage legislation consistent with the international protocol practised by countries engaged in stem cell research.

But it has repeatedly failed to respond when asked if it will postpone opening the stem cell side of its operation until such legislation is in place.

The Premier told the Partners Healthcare International Global Clinic Conference: "Most recently, we branched out and started another clinic — Brown-Darrell, named after my parents — where we currently perform CT studies on a state of the art 64 slice machine, and where we will in the not too distant future offer stem cell transplants."

Dr. Brown highlighted Lourdes in France as a miracle town of 15,000 people which can accommodate five million pilgrims in a year.

"We doctors do not think we are God," he continued. "I am not trying to equate the miracles at Lourdes with the miracles we see in our hospitals. I am simply saying that people will travel to be healed. Healing is the Holy Grail, and people will try to find it wherever it is. That is and always will be."

Describing the new guidelines for researchers and the public, Dr. Daley said: "These guidelines are critically important to the future success of the field.

"Not only does the use of untested therapies put patients at risk, it jeopardizes the legitimate practice of all translational stem cell research.

"With all the hype there is a risk that patients who are desperate will misunderstand the true level of advancement. They will assume that the cures are already here today or just around the corner."

Dr. Daley and fellow stem cell experts, speaking at a press conference in the US in June, said very few legitimate stem cell treatments were available now except for blood disorders such as leukaemia and immune deficiencies.

Their new guidelines, drawn up by groups from various countries, including the US Food and Drug Administration, and regulators in Europe, Japan, India and elsewhere, will condemn the use of stem cell therapies outside of an established clinical trial.

They will make specific recommendations for ethical oversight, peer review of studies, informed consent and protection of volunteers.

The Brown-Darrell plan, announced last July, is for one or two "no option" patients to fly to the Island for treatment every week. Stemedica has said it is designing technologies to treat conditions including stroke, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

It was initially scheduled to open early this year — and Stemedica's website still says stem cell treatment will be available in "early 2008".

Meanwhile adverts for a lab manager the Brown-Darrell Clinic placed in The Royal Gazette stated the job would start on or before December 1, 2007. The post had previously been advertised by Stemedica in Canada and the UK, leading to accusations that the group had bypassed Bermuda's immigration policies by failing to advertise locally first.

Brown-Darrell has refused to reveal whether it was successful in its search for a lab manager, and when the stem cell side of the clinic will open.