Consumer Watchdog Seeks Alteration of NIH Plan

Citing the “perverse effect” of proposed NIH stem cell research rules, the Consumer Watchdog group today called for changes in the guidelines along the lines recommended by the California stem cell agency and the Interstate Alliance on Stem Cell Research.

John M. Simpson, stem cell project director of the Santa Monica, Ca., group, said that the NIH plan would bar funding of research that had received financial support from the Bush Administration.

In a press release from his organization, Simpson said,

"Most of us were heartened when President Obama lifted Bush Administration restrictions on funding stem cell research, but the perverse effect of these proposed NIH rules is that the limited research scientists were able to conduct under Bush will now be ineligible for federal funding,

"Certainly this is not what President Obama intended and the regulations must be modified."

Simpson also noted that comments can be sent to the NIH online at the following Web site: http://nihoerextra.nih.gov/stem_cells/add.htm