The headline on the Biopolitical Times story said it
all: “Shameful Conflicts of Interest Involving California’s Stem Cell Agency.”
The piece by Pete Shanks of the Center for Genetics
and Society in Berkeley, Ca., dealt with the former president
of the agency, Alan Trounson, and StemCells, Inc., which holds a $19.4 million
award from the agency, along with Irv Weissman, the Stanford researcher who founded the firm and who now
sits on its board.
Trounson was named to the StemCells, Inc., board on
Monday, seven days after he left the agency. Yesterday the agency, formally known as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine(CIRM), launched a “full
review” of all activities involving StemCells, Inc. The agency also banned its staff and board fromcommunicating with Trounson about matters involving the publicly traded firm.
Shanks wrote,
“Let's be blunt: This looks like a pay-off. Technically, what Trounson and Weissman and StemCells, Inc., just did may not be illegal. But it's shameless.”
Shanks pointed out
that the problems with conflicts of interest at the agency are nothing new. As
far back as 2004, they were noted prior to passage of the measure that created
the state research effort. Their importance was noted by major supporters of the
measure, including Weissman.
Weissman was quoted in
Nature in September 2004 as saying,
“We want to avoid even the appearance of a conflict.”
Shanks concluded,
“CIRM should take a long look at its practices and procedures, which have never served the agency well — and especially should consider its obligations to the public, who fund it. There can be practical difficulties in balancing expertise and objectivity; the best scientists in any field do tend to know each other well. All the more reason to be especially careful. This kind of obviously problematic conflict of interest can and should easily be avoided.”
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