Snippets from the CCST Report

Here are excerpts from the CCST stem cell IP report:

Lower Your Expectations -- "We conclude that some Californians have unrealistically optimistic expectations about the likely financial returns to the state from its investment in stem cell research, especially in the short run. Some statements about these returns verge on hyperbole."

Think Long Term -- "In the near term, benefits will accrue to the state from its investment in the Stem Cell Initiative through retention and recruitment of high-quality research personnel to the state and through enhanced business activity in support of California research institutions and programs. In the longer term, the state will realize the majority of its economic return on investment from the creation of new high-tech jobs and businesses, stimulation of the economy, and the tax revenues derived from commercialization of the research results into new products and therapeutic treatments for a wide variety of debilitating illnesses. Although these impacts are not likely to accrue quickly in the near term, they have the potential to be substantial."

Assist Venture Capitalists -- "Encourage private investors to invest in further research and development of new technologies resulting from CIRM-funded research. Venture capital investment plays a critical role in the development of IP after initial research and before late-stage R&D which is more generally funded by private industry."

Widely Available Databases -- "CIRM should encourage grantees to make CIRM-funded databases as widely available as possible. However, if a proprietary database is necessary to move a grantee’s stem cell research forward faster, proprietary databases may be developed for and used in that research. The success of CIRM will depend greatly upon researchers’ ability to access data and information, often for multiple purposes. Scientific and research progress in stem cell research, like other research, will depend on researchers’ ability to access and use information in the public domain and to combine public and proprietary data into new databases, as well as to re-evaluate and reuse existing data."

The Disincentive of Royalty Revenue Sharing -- "Royalty revenue sharing may have negative impacts on both non-profit and for-profit grantees. Revenue sharing imposed by CIRM on its non-profit grantees may act as a disincentive to invest the effort and cost necessary to secure patent protection, find an appropriate licensee, and ultimately transfer a promising technology to the commercial sector for the development of treatments and drugs that prove beneficial to the general public. In addition, for non-profit grantees, a royalty sharing requirement could, depending on how it is administered, prevent them from maximizing the impact of CIRM funding by using it to leverage federal funds, since federal funding rules require them to use net royalties for education and research purposes. Royalty revenue sharing imposed on for-profit grantees could discourage their participation in CIRM funding altogether."


Favorable Pricing -- "The linkage of such an important healthcare financing policy with IP policy, and the subsequent management of IP, may have unfortunate and unintended consequences. Experience at the federal level strongly suggests that it would actually hinder the availability of medical advances, rather than make them more widely available....The example of the NIH experience suggests that an explicit requirement for reasonable pricing will probably drive away industry, which will be the critical partner in bringing treatments from concept to reality, and will effectively erect an insurmountable barrier to the commercialization of the products of CIRM-funded research....We recommend that a more detailed examination begin in the near future that engages the full range of non-IP technical expertise required to lay out the key issues involved in reasonable or favorable pricing."

Political Necessity – The report recommended a requiring grant recipients to prepare a "plan describing how IP will be managed for the advancement of science and California public benefit. Although such a plan is not customary for research grants, the public interest in this initiative and the calls for accountability suggest that developing a plan is a political necessity."

Patentable Inventions -- "In all cases, grantees should be obliged to disclose to CIRM the patentable inventions and other intellectual creations that result from CIRM-funded research; if they believe that the creations would be most effectively disseminated and most effectively foster significant ongoing scientific progress through dedication to the public domain or open source licensing, CIRM should respect this decision. Most important, CIRM grantees should be expected to reserve the right to use the technology for their own research and education purposes and to allow other non-profit institutions to do so as well, even in cases where an exclusive commercial license is granted for the commercial development of a product."