Stamina therapy
[17][18] From the investigations of the Prosecutor of Turin, the benefits shown in the videos were not measured scientifically and objectively and were the result of exaggeration or adjuvant therapies to which the children were subjected, or normal physical growth that continued despite the disease.
[17][19] Davide Vannoni reported that he had started the project as a result of personal experience: he has been hospitalized in 2007 in Ukraine for a facial palsy by transplantation of stem cells, getting partial health benefits.
[20] He then decided to propose the treatment in Italy too, collaborating, among others, with two Ukrainian biologists, Vyacheslav Klimenko and Olena Shchegelska, first settling in Turin, setting up a laboratory in the basement of his company, then moving to a beauty center in San Marino.
Press reports that Vannoni promised his treatment for many neurodegenerative diseases, getting payments ranging from 20,000 to 50,000 Euros, with unclear methodologies and sometimes causing harm and unintended consequences.
[20][23][24][25] While Vyacheslav Klimenko and Olena Shchegelska, both left Italy under investigation, Vannoni and his group continued to administer therapies in several Italian cities, often at "beauty" establishments or transplant centers, moving to Turin, Carmagnola, Trieste, Como and lastly Brescia.
[28] The Stamina method came under the media spotlight after a broadcast of the popular Italian television program Le Iene, went on air in February 2013, which showed its use in some children with various neuro-degenerative diseases, including SMA type I.
[35] In May 2013, thirteen scientists published a critical analysis of the method in the EMBO Journal, highlighting their concerns about the inconsistency of scientific evidence, the methodological shortcomings and the lack of publications.
[36] 2012 Medicine Nobel prize laureate Shinya Yamanaka published a public statement in which he expressed concern for permission for experimentation by the Italian authorities of a method about which the safety was not known and which lacked any evidence of efficacy,[37] while Italian oncologist Umberto Veronesi compared the outcry over Stamina to the story of the Di Bella method, an ineffective cancer treatment administered in violation of treatment protocols.
[4] In May 2013 the Italian Government unanimously approved the start of a clinical trial of the method developed by Vannoni, also allocating 3 million Euros for the years 2013–2014, and identifying two healthcare facilities in Abruzzo and Sicily where initiation of the treatment was authorized.
Treatment of SMA patients was the main subject of the television program Le Iene, which introduced the Stamina method to the general public.
[51][52] After Vannoni appealed in court against the commission responsible for human experimentation, accusing them of an alleged lack of impartiality, a new scientific committee was appointed in December 2013.
[53][54] Ten months later, the committee of experts appointed by the Minister of Health Beatrice Lorenzin unanimously rejected the Stamina method, stating that there was no need for starting another scientific experimentation of the therapy.
In February 2014 Vannoni was accused of attempted fraud of the Piedmont regional authorities after he has applied for a loan of €500,000 to fund a stem cell laboratory that never opened.
[66] In October 2014, the Medical Association of Trieste suspended Marino Andolina from the exercise of the profession[67][68] and in June 2015, he was placed under house arrest, facing trial for alleged exploitation of vulnerable patients and administration of unproven therapies in exchange for money.
[citation needed] In 2015, Vannoni was convicted on criminal charges related to administering an unproven treatment and barred from carrying out medical profession in Italy.
