Hi, this is Charles Hoskinson, broadcasting live from warm, sunny Colorado. I wish I was working in the office today; I wasn't able to get up to Cheyenne, but I wish I was in rugged Wyoming today, my other home where I spend more time. Something incredible has happened.
Last year, we had a long conversation with many different stakeholders from across the United States and abroad about increasing the accessibility of stem cells and stem cell-related products in the United States. As many of you know, there's an amazing renaissance happening right now with autologous and allogenic stem cells. For example, in China, they've cured type 1 diabetes in certain patients. They've achieved amazing things in the treatment of HIV and demonstrated incredible regenerative capabilities to restore joints, nerves, heal the heart, and heal the kidneys. It's absolutely incredible.
We brought a lot of people together at the Hoskinson Policy Office under the great leadership of Karen Wheeler and her team. We started a conversation about how to get a state in the United States to open its doors, similar to how a state opened doors years ago for the cryptocurrency industry, and build a stem cell industry in that state. Many people came together and recognized that this could truly benefit and enhance the world of stem cells and build up the state.
Senator Barlow brought forth to the Wyoming Senate the idea of SF 48, the Stem Cell Freedom Act. It was co-sponsored by Senator Briede and Hutchins, as well as Representatives Clausen and Haroldson. We all worked together to discuss how to build a piece of legislation like this. I am very pleased to announce that it has passed unanimously, and the governor signed it today. It is now the law of the land in the state of Wyoming. I’m super proud of everyone who worked on this and all the hard work that went into it.
I wanted to show you the bill quickly because this is an example of rare bipartisanship and unanimity across a state and a country that can be very fragmented and polarized. You can get these things done when you're doing it for the right people. This is the 68th Wyoming State Legislature, and as I said, SF 48, the Stem Cell Freedom Act. These are all the sponsors and co-sponsors who did an enormous amount of work, especially Senator Barlow and Representative Haroldson. It was a heavy lift. It went from "What is this? What are they doing?" to "Hey, actually, this is really cool."
If you take a look at the status, it passed 59 to 0 with three absences and passed the Senate 31 to 0. This was a unanimous piece of legislation, with Democrats and Republicans working together. I’m really proud of that.
Let me read it out here. The Stem Cell Freedom Act is an act related to public health and safety, authorizing physicians to recommend and perform stem cell therapy on patients as specified. It allows health care insurers to cover stem cell therapies as specified, prohibits the State Board of Medicine from taking action against a physician's license due to the use or promotion of stem cell therapy, and prohibits the state of Wyoming from denying patients access to stem cell therapy, provided that no cause for action is created against a person properly performing stem cell therapy. It requires compliance as specified, amends the powers of the Wyoming State Board of Medicine, provides definitions, and sets an effective date.
Basically, what this does is say that if you are in an IRB or have already passed phase one of a clinical trial, which means you have that safety signal, you can take your stem cells, and a physician can administer them. It creates a whole framework inside the state to do that. Most importantly, it protects the physician from an overly litigious state medical board. The problem is that in medicine, when you do things, you can have good outcomes, but if it's an effective treatment, you also have a chance of a bad outcome. You can't have a situation where, for every 100 procedures, if there's one bad procedure, someone from the board can come in and say, "Well, it wasn't FDA approved. I'm taking your license away." No doctor will ever embrace that. There's no incentive for them to engage.
To create an industry and bring people to the state, you have to establish a threshold of safety. Taking autologous stem cells, which are already made by your body, and having passed phase one of a clinical trial is fairly sufficient for that. Having a physician with disclosure, putting the patient in the loop, and giving them the right to try is important. We're proud that the state of Wyoming recognized this huge industry that is currently in the Caribbean and Central America, often conducted by people who aren't even physicians, using who knows what. They're not making those stem cells in CGMP labs.
We have all these people—whether they are MMA fighters, heroes from the special operations community, firefighters, police officers, or celebrities like Mel Gibson, who smoked for 40 years and developed terrible emphysema—who go to clinics for stem cell treatment. This law brings all that offshore business into the state of Wyoming and allows people to use their stem cells to heal themselves. That's a novel concept, as long as they consent, are informed of the potential risks, and a doctor is involved in the process.
The state of Wyoming, just like it did years ago when it took a chance on crypto, is now taking a chance on this emerging regenerative medicine world. This is just the beginning of a whole family of initiatives and endeavors. Many people worked hard for a long time on this, and it's exciting that it was bipartisan. Everyone came together, unified. Our policy office had to talk to many people, and a lot of individuals, especially Dr. Harmon from California, who has been in this market for more than 30 years, contributed. He flew out to Gillette, sat down with various senators and lawmakers, and discussed the pros and cons, what worked well, and what hasn't worked well in this industry.
Many physicians had tons of questions, and they all got involved and talked to each other. Senator Barlow is a doctor himself, a doctor of veterinary medicine, so it was nice to have those types of dialogues and conversations. Ultimately, it was a collective leadership effort from many amazing people working hard for a long time to give patients the right to try stem cells in the state of Wyoming. They don't have to leave the United States to go to Mexico, Costa Rica, or Panama to inject who knows what from who knows who. They can go to Wyoming, use their own stem cells, and work with qualified, capable, and licensed doctors in the United States.
This is a major step forward, and we're excited to see where this goes and how this ecosystem evolves and matures. At Hoskinson Health, our clinic is always expanding, and we're building a CGMP lab. We're excited to work with the broader American Stem Cell Network to continue research, clinical trials, and now use the Stem Cell Freedom Act. People will offer this and explore it with patients. We already have a pulmonologist coming on board, and we're looking at our patient panels. We'd love to see if the Mel Gibson experience can be expanded for people who are oxygen-dependent to help them get off oxygen.
We're also extremely excited to explore where stem cells can be used in orthopedic contexts, as well as in anti-aging and anti-inflammation applications. We have a device that we're currently working on with the University of Wyoming to make it much easier to harvest stem cells. We're trying to figure out how to extract post-derived stem cells from fat and get them into a device to make it uniform, so you don't have to go through liposuction to remove them and culture-expand them in a more standardized and cost-effective way. Every part of this process aims to make it cheaper, faster, and safer to extract stem cells, culture-expand them, and then incorporate them into the healing process for patients.
This is a big passion of mine and my family. For those who know me, my family has been in medicine for 70 years. My grandfather started as an OBGYN in the 1950s, and my father, uncle, and brother are all doctors. This is part of our family's legacy. Today, our clinic, Hoskinson Health, in Gillette, Wyoming, celebrated its 20,000th patient. We have more than two-thirds of the population of Gillette as patients of Hoskinson Health. We're proud to watch this program grow, expand, and evolve, and we're proud that the state of Wyoming has opened up.
Politics is a brutal business, and there are disagreements. Many of you know that the governor and I in Wyoming have had some struggles regarding the Wyoming Stablecoin Act, which didn't work out well. But he signed the bill today, showing maturity and leadership. As one of his parting gifts before leaving office in 2026, he has now created an entirely new industry in the state of Wyoming. It's now the best in class for the entire United States and will bring back all the offshore business currently being done in places like Thailand, Mexico, or Costa Rica. Wyoming is going to be the place, long-term, that I believe will cure many diseases previously considered uncurable. It will solve many problems that people have had as chronic ailments, which they were told they would have to manage for the rest of their lives. This will revolutionize the cost of care for everyone everywhere.
I'm very proud that a state of ranchers could bring this to the United States and revolutionize healthcare. I want to thank everyone from the governor to all the lawmakers in Wyoming for showing phenomenal leadership and foresight. This is just the beginning. There are many more things to do, and there will be much more legislation. Just like with the cryptocurrency industry, it started with a single bill, and now there are more than 30. You can see how far we've come as an industry, with Kraken getting a master account with the Federal Reserve. The Wyoming miracle is influencing where the federal government is going.
I love that Wyoming gets to lead the nation yet again, and this will revolutionize and transform the stem cell industry and, more broadly, the medicine industry. People are considering how we move from treatments to cures. When you go to the doctor, instead of them giving you something to take for the rest of your life, they actually fix the problem. We owe it to all the people who were injured in war, to those who have given so much and are now worn down and need help, and to everyone recovering from bad experiences, whether it be an injury or cancer, who now have peripheral neuropathies or other issues. They need help, and it's not a small number of people—it's millions of Americans.
Many in Wyoming recognize it's a shame when an American has to leave the country to seek help. That doesn't make sense for the richest nation in the world, which supposedly has the best healthcare. They may not be able to get treatment in California or New York, but they can get it in Wyoming.
I want to thank everyone involved, especially the policy office and Karen Wheeler's amazing leadership. She worked overtime on this. It was a long haul, and we're all proud of it. It showed that maybe, just maybe, we can be bipartisan and get things done. The fact that it passed unanimously is special. I generally don't see things like that too often in life, and that's okay. We're going to take the wins where we can.
I'm also excited that the governor signed it today, and the state of Wyoming is open for business. I believe it will take effect in July. There's a lot to do, and as I said, we're building a CGMP facility and bringing in many domain experts. Wyoming is also going to get a big brain upgrade. I fully anticipate there will be significant funding increases at the University of Wyoming because now it's the best place in the United States to run a stem cell clinical trial because of this law.
As I mentioned, we're going to continue to do research and push things forward. We're already looking at all the amazing things done abroad. Some countries, especially China, are ahead of us in certain respects, and that bothers me as an American. We invented this industry, and we should be thriving and dominating in it. I want to ensure that much of that innovation abroad comes back home, allowing us to help Americans get back where they need to be.
Today is a phenomenal day, a wonderful way to end Friday. I was excited about it, and I can't wait to head up to Wyoming tonight. I'm sorry I missed the signing; unfortunately, I was stuck down here in Colorado. That's what happens in a split life. But maybe one of these days, I can fully move up there.
In any event, thank you so much, rough and rugged Wyoming. You've yet again proven that you're not just the first in the nation, but the best in the nation. It's a good day for everyone who needs a little help. It will take more time to get there, but the cavalry's coming. Good night, and God bless.
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