Opal Clinic closedown

Opal Clinic closed a few months ago and is currently only treating existing patients.  Legal liability was a major factor in the closedown. 

Opal has been treating patients under the Special Access Scheme, managed by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.  Treatment was perfectly legal, but the fact remains that these are unapproved therapies, and this exposes our doctors to greater legal risk than with approved therapies.  What it boils down to is that a doctor treating a patient, with a (correctly used) approved therapy, has negligible legal risk (no matter what happens to the patient).  A doctor using an unapproved therapy has significant legal risk. I am currently talking to government about changing this, but do not hold your breath.

The owners of the intellectual property for both Opal therapies are aggressively pursuing regulatory approval, but this will take years- beyond the lifetimes of people who now have metastatic cancer.  I am actively participating in the development of these therapies and am quite up to date on progress. In the meantime, both therapies used by Opal continue to perform extremely well in clinics outside Australia.  Both are safe and effective therapies, with minimal treatment problems and no evidence of any long term damage.  They are attracting considerable support from experts in the field, but realistically, nothing much will happen in Australia until they get regulatory approval - many years away.

If you are interested in getting access to these treatments (outside Australia), please click here .  Include your telephone number, and give a brief description of your health status, and we will direct you to the appropriate practitioners.

Doug Mitchell Ph.D
Chairman, Opal Clinic.