California Stem Cell Agency Scores 50 Clinical Trials, Says It "Just Getting Started"

OAKLAND, Ca. -- California's ambitious stem cell agency this morning chalked up involvement in 50 clinical trials, an achievement that was regarded by some as unattainable 10 years ago.

The watershed event came when directors of the agency approved a $6.2 million proposal to help fight lymphoma.
Following the action, the first person ever to participate in a CIRM human embryonic stem cell trial, Richard Lajara, praised the efforts of the agency, which is running out of cash. 

He said the people of California have a responsibility to move forward with stem cell research and to continue to fund the agency. Lajara's appeal followed a statement from the agency that 35 persons are alive today because of clinical trials that it has helped to finance.

Lajara, who is paralyzed from the waist down, was enrolled in 2011 in the spinal injury trial initiated by Geron, Inc.,  and backed by the agency. 

Jonathan Thomas, chairman of the agency, which is formally called the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine(CIRM), said in a statement,

"We have come a long way in the past seven and a half years, helping advance the field from its early days to a much more mature space today, one capable of producing new treatments and even cures. 

 "But we feel that in many ways we are just getting started, and we intend funding as many additional clinical trials as we can for as long as we can."

In the early days of the agency, Robert Klein, its first chairman, and others widely regarded major participation in clinical trials, especially phase three, as largely beyond the financial capability of the agency. The cost was prohibitive, they said.

The cost of trials varies widely but can run into hundreds of millions of dollars, which could rapidly devour the $3 billion the agency had to spend, the reasoning went. Clinical trials are the last stage before a treatment is approved for widespread use by the federal government.

CIRM's first strategic plan in December 2006, which covered a 10 year period, anticipated some involvement in phase one and two trials. But it said,

"Because of their expense and because of the time required to reach this stage of clinical development, CIRM is unlikely to fund Phase III trials over the time span of the strategic plan."

The first patient to enroll in a CIRM clinical trial did not come until late 2011. 

Today, the agency has committed $541 million to clinical trials, including four that are in phase three, the ultimate trial hurdle to clear before a treatment wins approval. The phase three trials involve kidney disease and ALS.

The 14-year-old agency is now down to its last $144 million. Money for new awards will run out at the end of next year. CIRM is pinning its hopes for continued life on a proposed $5 billion ballot measure on the November 2020 ballot.

Key to winning approval would be a favorable result from its clinical trials -- one that would resonate with the voters. Their expectations were raised in 2004 by the ballot campaign that led to creation of the agency. However, the agency has yet to produce a stem cell treatment that is widely available.