INSTITUTE’S BOARD TO CONSIDER SHARING 25% OF PROCEEDS FROM RESEARCH
The San Jose Mercury News
California could get a financial return on its $3 billion investment in the state’s new stem-cell research institute, under a new proposal.
The board overseeing the stem-cell program, called the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, today will consider approving a policy that would require giving the state one-fourth of any revenue exceeding $500,000 that its research generates from new medicines or other treatments.
Some board members had voiced concerns last year that letting the state share in the profits might discourage scientists and companies from getting involved in the program, which was created by Proposition 71 in 2004. Others worried it might hinder the state’s ability to sell tax-exempt bonds to finance the institute.
But after meeting with interested groups, a board task force working on the proposed policy decided the tax-exempt bonds could be sold without a problem and that it made sense for the state to get a 25 percent royalty, according to institute spokeswoman Nicole Pagano.
She said the policy would also require researchers who get institute money to freely share their discoveries with other scientists and to have easy-to-understand summaries of their work posted on the institute’s Web site (www.cirm.ca.gov).
“Having it in plain English that the general public can understand is pretty cool,” she said.
The proposed policy applies only to universities and other non-profit institutions. A separate policy will be drafted for businesses that get stem-cell grants through the program.
While critics of the board are happy the proposed policy would let the state share in the profits, they aren’t completely satisfied with the document.
“We think they’ve made really good progress, but we do have some areas where we’d like to see them tighten up the language,” said Hallye Jordan, spokeswoman for Sen. Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, who has demanded the state get a good return from the stem-cell investment.
She said Ortiz plans to amend a previously introduced bill, SCA 13, to give California’s attorney general clearer authority to monitor the stem-cell institute’s contracts and to ensure the state gets its fair share from the research program.
John Simpson of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights in Santa Monica also is encouraged by the proposed policy. But he thinks its language can be strengthened to ensure that any treatments derived from the stem-cell program are made available to Californians at low cost. And he disagrees with letting researchers earn $500,000 before having to give the state royalties.
“I think it’s too high, frankly,” Simpson said. “We believe $100,000 is fair.”
Two lawsuits filed by taxpayer and anti-abortion groups, which claim the stem-cell program is unconstitutional, are holding up the sale of bonds to finance the program.
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Contact Steve Johnson at [email protected] or (408) 920-5043.
