The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Free National Movement’s (FNM) chairman yesterday said the Government’s plans to overhaul the Stem Cell Therapy and Research Act are unlikely to be “a game changer” for healthcare or the economy.

Dr Duane Sands, who sat on the committee headed by the late Dr Arthur Porter that devised the present Act, told Tribune Business: “I don’t know how much of an impact that’s going to make. It seems as if the general enthusiasm for stem cell therapy has gone into a bit of a lull recently.

“The fervour and excitement it may have held three to five years ago is certainly not there, in large part because the practical application of the stem cell therapies has not borne great clinical outcome fruit. It has not had the great outcomes that people had hoped. It continues to be a work in progress.”

The Davis administration is planning to “repeal and replace the current Stem Cell Act to tighten its regulatory framework”, as announced in Wednesday’s Speech from the Throne. Dr Sands said the original legislation, passed under the Christie administration in 2014, ignited an initial “flurry of activity.. with a few projects getting off the ground, none of which have been sustained.

“I don’t think that was an issue with the legislative framework,” he added. “I think it has more to do with the application of technology and therapy, and the enthusiasm has since waned. I see no reason why we shouldn’t continue to look for opportunities, but I don’t see this as being a game changer. It’s an interesting side bar, but nothing so great.”

One of the “projects” referred to by Dr Sands was the Freeport-based Okyanos Centre for Regenerative Medicine, which ultimately was placed into Supreme Court-supervised liquidation after Hurricane Dorian and wound-up. Less than 3 percent of $16.5m in creditor claims had been accepted as at end-May 2022.

Cheryl Simms, liquidator for the company, revealed in her first report to the Supreme Court that just $448,883 worth of claims were valid at that date with a decision yet to be made on a further $14.336m.

The Kikivarakis & Company accountant, disclosing that she has rejected another $1.684m in creditor demands, said the $14.336m represents claims by just two creditors - one of whom, LS Enterprises, petitioned for Okyanos’ liquidation under Supreme Court supervision. As the stem cell therapy provider’s main financier, it is seeking to recover some $12.438m that was advanced as loans to cover multi-million dollar losses prior to the company’s closure.

The liquidator’s report, obtained by Tribune Business, detailed several battles that Ms Simms faced in seeking to progress the liquidation. Besides a “challenging” relationship with Okyanos’ landlord, the previously BISX-listed fund, Premier Real Estate Investment Corporation, which featured legal “threats” and payment demands, she also had to negotiate a settlement of the stem cell therapy provider’s Hurricane Dorian coverage claim with Insurance Management.

Ms Simms also detailed the struggle to sell-off Okyanos’ specialist medical equipment, and other assets, to a narrow range of buyers amid the lockdowns and various other restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first sales process, just 45 percent of promised payments from winning bidders were received, which forced the liquidator to stage a second bid that saw Doctors Hospital acquire the remaining equipment for $425,000.

Okyanos was suffering from a $7.553m solvency deficiency, with $5.667m in total assets dwarfed by $13.22m in liabilities, when it was placed into court-supervised liquidation on February 6, 2020. This meant that creditors only recovered a portion of the total sum owed to them, known as “cents on the dollar”, once the winding-up completed.