At the risk of appearing conceited, let me devote today’s report to two instances where biotherapy was awarded some respect by the society in general, and the medical community in particular.
Maggot therapy began its current revival in the United States in the early 1990’s. In the United Kingdom, this occurred about 5 years later. There are many proponents of maggot therapy in the UK, and many people who deserve credit for creating the laboratories and clinics where it all started. Since those early days, Mary Jones devoted her time to spreading the word, and the skills, through her efforts teaching other health care providers to treat patients with maggot dressings. Earlier this year, her Maggot Therapy work was formally recognized by the Queen of England. Mary Jones was awarded an MBE in the Queen's New Year Honors for her services to nursing. Read more about it at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7163148.stm
This past June, the Director of the BioTherapeutics, Education & Research (BTER) Foundation, Ronald Sherman (yes, that’s me), was recognized by the editors of Medical Device and Diagnostics Industry as one of the “100 Notable People” in the medical device industry for 2008. This tribute was published in the June, 2008 issue of the trade journal.
Among Dr. Sherman’s contributions listed in this cover story are his clinical trials of medicinal maggots for wound-healing, and his success in securing FDA marketing clearance for those maggots --- the first live animal to achieve such a status in FDA history.
Ronald Sherman began his interest in maggot therapy as an Entomology undergraduate, and wrote his first paper with Plastic Surgeon Ed Pechter while in medical school (published 1983). By 1989 he had the opportunity to design and conduct his first prospective clinical trials of maggot therapy. With funding by the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA), California PVA, and the Andrus Foundation (American Association of Retired Persons), he spent the next 5 years evaluating the safety and efficacy of the flies that he captured in Southern California. Sherman modernized methods for disinfecting them and applying them to wounds. He has supplied nearly 1,000 therapists in the United States with medicinal maggots for use in their patients, and he has assisted others worldwide in setting up their own maggot-rearing laboratories (today more than 25 laboratories supply medicinal maggots to patients in 35 countries). In 2003, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began regulating medicinal maggots. In January, 2004, Sherman’s Medical Maggots became the first living organism to receive marketing clearance by the FDA as a prescription medical device. found a safe and effective strain, which has been maintained with genetic purity until this day.
These two commendations are a landmark in biotherapy history, for they indicate that maggot therapy and those who promote it are now welcome back into the mainstream. Indeed, at least in Britain, they are even welcome in high society. Congratulations to Mary Jones and Ron Sherman. Congratulations to British and American Society, for making it back to the future of medicine.
Among Dr. Sherman’s contributions listed in this cover story are his clinical trials of medicinal maggots for wound-healing, and his success in securing FDA marketing clearance for those maggots --- the first live animal to achieve such a status in FDA history.
