[3][2] Edzard Ernst has called phosphorylethanolamine "the most peculiar case of Brazilian quackery".
[2] There has been ongoing controversy and litigation in Brazil with regard to its use as a cancer treatment without approval by the National Health Surveillance Agency.
For years, Gilberto Chierice, a Chemistry Professor at the São Carlos campus of the University of São Paulo, used resources from a campus laboratory to unofficially manufacture, distribute, and promote the drug to cancer patients without it having gone through clinical testing.
Jailson Bittencourt de Andrade, secretary for Brazil's science and technology ministry, said the ministry plans to fund further research on the compound, but that it will be years before a determination can be made about phosphorylethanolamine's safety and efficacy in humans.
[4][5] On April 14, 2016, a law was passed in Brazil allowing the use of synthetic phosphorylethanolamine for cancer treatment,[6] despite opposition from the Brazilian Medical Association, the Brazilian Society of Clinical Oncology, and the regulatory agency Anvisa.