If you arent involved somehow with cancer, medically, in the treatment of it, or possibly as a patient, then odds are you’ve never heard of GcMAF. It represents the most persistent and comprehensive medical scam of the last decade, perpetrated on industry professionals who should have known better but were blinded by a mixture of desperation, faith, and hope.
A very relevant GcMAF history
GcMAF first sprang to internet notoriety in 2015, with an alternate health and conspiracy publication, Natural News, claiming the following.
A particular cure named GcMAF (short for “Gc protein-derived macrophage activating factor,” which is a chemically altered form of a natural protein that allegedly stimulates the activity of a specific kind of white blood cell) “has the potential to be a universal cure for cancer”
It didn’t take long for GcMAF to attain messianic status in the world of online hocus pocus and make-believe medical cures. Natural News continued in the same article;
“[GcMAF] is also believed,” the web site reported, “to be capable of treating and reversing autism, HIV, liver/kidney disease and diabetes.” Rumor has it that GcMAF has the potential to be a cure for even more diseases, such as herpes, as well.”
Despite the numerous research articles published in reputable medical journals (most now retracted) claiming to validate GcMAF as effective in the treatment of cancers, GcMAF does not cure cancer, or for that matter, any other ailment. It was, and possibly still is, a drug for which there is no clear clinical evidence to suggest efficacy for anything. Hints of promise have never translated into actual results.
How it came to be considered by some as the cure-all for cancer, is another tale entirely, and one well worth following. In a 2017 expose by Snopes, ably assisted by the Anticancer Fund (ACF), GcMAF was finally exposed. In the article, its creator and main proponent, Dr. Nobuto Yamamoto. was shown to be guilty of falsifying clinical trials in a concerted decades-long effort to sell the lie of GcMAF.
The seriousness and implications of Yamamoto’s fraud have widespread implications for the medical community, its publications, and the processes it depends on to validate new medicines. It has highlighted how a once-respected member of the medical community can go rogue, using the system’s “fail-safes” against it. The GcMAF saga shouldn’t be forgotten. It serves as a permanent reminder of unaddressed industry loopholes, most of which remain in place.
The result of publishers not removing flawed research results in yet more papers, based on the theories promoted in the original disproven research. Here is a classic example, where two of Yamamoto’s papers on GcMAF have been referenced by researchers, in a recent paper entitled “Potential role of GcMAF in suppressing the severity of COVID-19-induced immune responses: Lesson learned from HIV”.
Two questions to the publications involved. Why have you refused to retract Yamamoto’s erroneous papers and where is the peer review process that would identify the research in the paper referenced above to be flawed? Allowing erroneous and flawed studies to persist endangers the public.
You can find the complete Snopes Article here. Entitled, “How a Retired Scientist’s Questionable ‘Institute’ Convinced the Internet That Cancer Was Cured”, it makes for fascinating reading and we recommend it as a case study in professionally perpetrated pharmaceutical deception. Yamamoto had enjoyed a long and distinguished career till GcMAF, making the motivation for the fraud that much harder to determine, and experts remain divided on his true motivation.
In November of 2009, Yamamoto successfully sold his patents for GcMAF and related intellectual property to an Israeli biopharmaceutical company, Efranat Macrophage. The company, after initially embracing Yamamoto, gradually distanced itself from him, rebranding GcMAF as EFF-022 and going as far as changing the drug’s name mid-trial.
While the medical community gradually turned their backs on GcMAF, the alternate health and conspiracy sections of the internet were far from done with their new darling, having seen the marketing and sales potential for this new “miracle” cure.
From fake medicine to alternate health cure-all
Enter David Noakes, UK founder of Immuno Biotech Ltd, and Dr. Jefferey Broadstreet. In November of 2018 Noakes, was sentenced to 15 months in prison by a UK court over charges of manufacturing, selling, and supplying an unlicensed medicine, as well as money laundering. He was arrested again in London in 2020 for extradition to France.
The unlicensed medicine, Globulin component Macrophage Activating Factor (GcMAF), a product manufactured from human blood, was advertised as a cure for conditions, such as cancer, HIV, and autism. Between the years of 2012 and 2015, it has been estimated that Noakes made approximately £10 million through sales of GcMAF. It was sold online, through websites across Europe.
Jeffrey Bradstreet, a controversial American doctor involved with Noakes’ Immuno Biotech. had previously published a number of papers suggesting that GcMAF could “cure” children with autism, and his suicide following a raid on that company and his own clinic spawned conspiracy theories about the government’s and Big Pharma’s merciless goal to hide a cure for cancer.
The raid on Immuno Biotech’s production facility that preceded Bradstreet’s death revealed that materials used in their production of their GcMAF (i.e., blood plasma) were explicitly labeled that they not be administered to humans or used in the production of drugs.
Japan also got in on the act. Today, the company, Saisei-Mirai is still at it, rebranding GcMAF as MAF, they now sell the product as a cure-all and have highlighted Covid-19 as one of the diseases MAF can cure or treat.
Saisai-Mirai created and patented what they call “second-generation GcMAF,” announcing the therapy in a misleading advertisement in the journal Nature Outlooks that was formatted to look like a peer-reviewed study (and has been cited as such). There is no clinical evidence to support any of the claims made by the company or any other company that still sells the product.
Saisai-Mirai also sells its GcMAF concoction from another site, Heart Products Online Pharmacy, and competition to sell GcMAF is so aggressive within the alternate health industry that it has gone to pains on its site to discredit a competitor, gcmafplus (see below) by posting the following ironic warning.
-FAKE PRODUCTS WARNING-
3rd Generation GcMAF was developed by Saisei Pharma for which we hold patents. There are fake GcMAF products sold online in Australia by a company which is registered in Hong Kong. Please be aware that 3rd Generation GcMAF products are only produced by Saisei Pharma. Any other products from other companies are fake products.
Rebranded for the alternate health sector
Now widely sold globally as a “supplement” GcMAF evades efforts to remove it from the public space. As a supplement, it escapes strict regulation and with clever marketing that avoids alluding directly to medicinal claims, the product still generates millions in global sales. Every cent of that turnover is provided by desperate, exploited people, willing to risk anything in search of a cure.
Perhaps the most eloquent description of this abusive practice is best left to Alex Kasprak, author of the Snopes articles referenced above;
Aside from the safety issues created by the undervetted promotion of GcMAF by online profiteers, the viral promotion of conspiracy theories suggesting that sinister government or corporate entities are purposely keeping GcMAF from the public means that those who search online for cures for cancer, AIDS, or other ailments in the wake of terrifying diagnoses are likely to find information about GcMAF and led into believing in what is almost assuredly a false ray of hope. That ray of hope would be misleadingly supported by the appearance of legitimate-looking research presented by an institute run from a retired scientist’s home:
The criminal intent that drives these companies continues unabated. The Australian/Hong Kong/US-based GCMAF Plus has turned it into big business, and the very existence of the site, the terminology used for marketing, and the clear intent of selling an unproven treatment for autism and cancer, is a massive indictment of the medical regulation that exists in the aforementioned countries. This company is selling unproven treatments and misleading vulnerable members of the public.
These customer recommendations are plastered across the website’s front page.
Interestingly, in their disclaimer, the website states the following;
Furthermore, users of this product who have children in their home, must take care as they are 100% responsible in ensuring that their child /children do not touch and/or eat the product. The sellers and/or manufacturers are in no way responsible for any acts of children under or outside of their parent’s care.
The potential diseases the website highlights for treatment are mind-blowing and how this does not put off any potential customer defies reason.
According to their website, the company resides in Hong Kong (Neich Tower, Gloucester Rd. Hong Kong) and their products are manufactured and delivered from inside Australia. Medika has reached out to the two accreditation companies’ certificates shown in the footer of the website to enquire as to their validity and the companies’ motivation for issuing them.
No address other than a US /care-of address, PO Box 639, Kirkland, WA 98083–0639, WHOIS privacy, is shown on the site and Medika had contacted the company for further details.
Medika intends to register formal complaints with Paypal, the website’s payment processor, and licensing and regulatory authorities in the countries in which this website operates and sells, starting with the US FDA and DOJ. Consider yourself warned. Shut down your business now. Your unethical, sickening marketing tactics and exploitation of sick and vulnerable members of the community are at an end.
Interestingly, our research for the originating company behind this website led us to https://akesisoncology.com/, otherwise known as Akesis Life, another alternative medical scam run out of Thailand, offering a variety of unproven cancer treatments, including GcMAF. Medika was unable to establish if the two companies are indeed linked. Suffice it to say, if you suffering from cancer, save yourself money and heartache and don’t book a trip to Thailand.
GcMAF is still freely available on the internet and can even be ordered off Amazon, proof of the power and manipulation of discredited research by unethical agents from the alt-health sector. It also speaks volumes to the desperation of people suffering from cancer, autism, and the whole spectrum of diseases the drug claims to treat. GcMAF has been banned across Europe, but can still be ordered from foreign websites.
Covid and GcMAF
Finally, adding another disease to its long list of magical properties, GcMAF sellers have focused on Covid-19 and although it may have bolstered sales, this “addition” may also lead to a much-deserved death knell for the drug.
Much of the Covid-19 related research is based on Yamamoto’s older GcMAF studies, rigorously proven to now be flawed, and yet these studies still persist in certain publications, that have patently refused to retract, notably Translational Oncology and AIDS Research & Human Retroviruses. The dangers of their dogged refusal are clear and the consequences have now been made glaringly obvious. Mistakes compound further mistakes and in medicine, this can be deadly.
GcMAF is not a magic bullet and does not offer relief, treat or cure Covid-19 symptoms or the disease itself. There is zero clinical evidence to support any claims and any substantive papers published are theoretical and use the original flawed materials and papers as reference.
It is very worrying that Medika authors, with no pharmacological training, can identify these issues and yet they seem to elude publications like Elsevier. Again, proper, sufficiently educated independent peer review is glaringly absent and if we are to rely on these publications for authenticity, they need to be fit for purpose.
Is it dangerous?
The risk for reaction exists with the use of any drug. Although the drug has not been shown to exhibit serious side effects within certain dosages, you may as well be drinking water. To repeat, in case you hadn’t gotten the message by now, the drug does none of what it claims.
Additionally, unscrupulous manufacturers will cut costs any way they can, using ingredients in their formulations that aren’t approved for human consumption. You have zero guarantees of ingredient purity as supplements are very loosely regulated and this results in a free-for-all. In fact, you’ve no idea at all what is put into the bottle of cream, lotion, tablet, or extract you are sold. Why would you choose to trust these companies?
If you’ve been taken in by the GcMAF scam, please don’t feel bad. Many medical and scientific people were conned and some still haven’t seen the light. Always check with a registered medical healthcare provider before you start using any alternate medication or supplements and if you have doubts, check online. There are numerous companies like Medika Life that highlight dangerous practices and products.
