Joy Kong, MDRegenerative Medicine Physician, Educator, and Entrepreneur

THIS Stem Cell Company Cut Corners—Here’s What Happened

10 May 2025 · 1 min

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YouTube video by Joy Kong, MD (uploaded May 10, 2025) that explains U.S. donor screening for prenatal/stem-cell donations and recounts a 2018 safety incident involving the company Livyon. The speaker notes that U.S. donors undergo strict prenatal care and infectious-disease screening, then describes that in 2018 more than 20 people became very ill after receiving stem cell products from Livyon — at least 19 hospitalized with E. coli and other bacterial infections — allegedly because the lab skipped required sterility testing and produced contaminated product.

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In the U.S. the donors go through very strict screening because they all have to go through regular prenatal care, and a lot of infectious diseases are screened for, and the mother's health is closely monitored. There's something else that could be a glitch, and that's what we've seen in 2018, when there were people who were hospitalized after receiving stem cell treatment using products from Livyon. Unfortunately, more than 20 people were very ill. What I read was at least 19 people were hospitalized from E. Coli and other bacterial infections because the company cut corners. This laboratory ended up not having a clean product and did not go through the required sterility test to see if there's any bacteria growing or any endotoxins produced from these products. You have to be careful.