CIRM Tackles IP Rules for Private Business March 29

The California stem cell agency will begin to develop its share-the-wealth rules for research grants to private enterprise next week as one expert warns of a "chilling effect" if the state gets too greedy.

The note of caution came from David Mowery, professor at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.
A press release last Friday from the school said:

"Should intellectual property and patenting laws be tweaked so that a portion of profits from stem cell research goes back to taxpayers and not just into the coffers of universities and biotech companies? Should the state be able to negotiate low prices on drugs or treatments that are eventually developed with Proposition 71 funds?
"'The direct or near-term benefits from such policies are likely to be very small,' Mowery argues. 'On the other hand, the risk of such policies having a chilling effect on licensee interest in intellectual property is likely to be great.'"

The press release continued:

"'To begin tampering with this legislation on the question of stem cell research in order to set up what amounts to a separate set of laws for this new area of research will dramatically raise overhead costs and serve as a drag on innovation,' he says. 'The relatively small amount of money that will be returned to taxpayers will hardly make it worth it.'"

The size of that return – if any – is likely to be lurking among the subjects at a meeting of CIRM's Intellectual Property Task Force next Wednesday (3-29). The primary item on the agenda? "Informational presentations by representatives of granting agencies and the commercial life sciences sector regarding grants to for-profit entities." At this point, that is the most detailed information available on the Web.

The IP Task Force is on a pretty fast track to develop its regulations, so if you want to have your views considered, it would be wise to touch base with the group. The meeting can be heard at five different locations throughout California, but the San Francisco site is probably where the chairman of the task force, Ed Penhoet, will be located.

Other sites are located in Elk Grove, Chico, Irvine and Stanford. The addresses can be found on the agenda.