Some Aussies Less Than Enthusiastic About CIRM Plan

While California stem cell directors heaped huzzahs on a proposed plan on how to spend billions on embryonic stem cell research, a different reaction came from half-a-world away.

BioEdge, a blog of the Australasian Bioethics Information website, carried a piece headlined "California Dreaming." It said, in part,

"Californian voters approved a $3 billion bond issue to finance the institute in 2004. With interest, the cost to the state will be about $6 billion. Now, it appears, that the Institute may have nothing to show for its efforts in cures or in royalties by the time it folds its tent and silently steals away. (The word royalties is not mentioned once in the entire (strategic plan)...."