The following report on the California stem cell trial comes live from the Alameda County courtroom where the legal proceedings are underway. Your comments or questions are welcome as the trial progresses this afternoon.
We have just broken for a mid-afternoon recess. The plaintiffs are looking for a document that they say they haven't read. But they want to question Bob Klein about it. Attorney David Llewellyn became a tad more animated a few minutes ago as he pressed Klein on whether there were any guarantees that the state would earn any royalties from stem cell inventions financed by CIRM. Klein said no.
This leaves me a little puzzled.
ReplyDeleteUnder CIRM's interim IP rules for nonprofits, the state would get 25% of any revenue in excess of $500,000. I suppose Bob Klein is technically correct that nobody can guarantee there will ever be revenues that cross the threshold. That's one reason the threshold should be $100,000.
Sure, there are no guarantees about anything in life, but CIRM does appear to have made provisions for a financial return to the state, if there is significant revenue.
And that provision came because of pressure from organizations like the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights and the Legislature.
The non-profit IP rules also provide publicly funded health plans could buy any drugs or therapies at the Medicaid price -- usually the lowest -- and that there be plans in place to make cures available to the uninsured. These provisions were also in response to public input.
CIRM needs to do more to ensure that all Californians have affordable access to Prop 71-funded cures -- specifically by providing the Attorney General can intervene in the event of unreasonable pricing. But the ICOC made a good first step toward ensuring a payback to the state. I'm surprised Bob Klein didn't say so.
John M. Simpson
Stem Cell Project Director
Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights