Directors of the $3 billion, California stem cell agency on Friday will be engaged in a curious mix of end-of-life planning plus a serious look at the possible rebirth of the 15-year-old program, which is unprecedented in state history.
On the meeting's agenda is a proposed budget for the 12 months beginning in July, which amounts to a wind-down plan if voters reject a $5.5 billion bond measure this fall that would refinance the agency. The agency has run through nearly all of the $3 billion provided by voters in 2004. The spending plan would wrap up ongoing multi-year grants, archive records and help to assure that the state receives any royalties for stem products that it has helped to finance.
On a positive note, the 29 directors will discuss the $5.5 billion ballot initiative and almost certainly endorse it. The measure is more than money. The initiative would not only provide cash via the issuance of state bonds but charge the agency with more specific responsibilities, such as spending at least $1.5 billion on "diseases and conditions of the brain and central nervous system, including but not limited to Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, stroke, dementia, epilepsy, schizophrenia, depression, traumatic brain
injury, brain cancer, and autism."
The measure is also aimed at ensuring accessibility to any new stem cell therapies, whose prices could run to $1 million or more. The agency, however, has yet to participate in funding a stem cell therapy that is widely available to the public.
*********
Read all about California's stem cell agency, including Proposition 14, in David Jensen's new book. Buy it on Amazon: California's Great Stem Cell Experiment: Inside a $3 Billion Search for Stem Cell Cures. Click here for more information on the author.
A campaign organization called Californians for Stem Cell Research, Treatments and Cures has already been created. It has a website and is soliciting contributions for what could be a $50 million campaign. Interested persons can also sign up for its mailing list. No opposition campaign group has surfaced, although the Center for Genetics and Society in Berkeley has raised serious questions and reservations.
The ballot initiative has not yet qualified for the November ballot. However, short of an extraordinary event, it seems all but certain to be placed before voters.
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), as the agency is formally known, was created in 2004 by voters through the use of the state's ballot initiative process, a "direct democracy" tool that permits those who can gather hundreds of thousands of signatures to take their proposals directly to voters. Initiatives bypass the legislature and the governor. CIRM also operates effectively outside of the control of the governor or lawmakers under the terms of the initiative that created it.
A scientific research state agency funded with billions of dollars has never existed in California history. It is the largest such state stem cell effort in the nation. At one point it was the single largest source in the world for funding human embryonic stem cell research.
Friday's online meeting, which begins at 9 a.m. PDT, is open to members of the public who can comment on any issue. Full directions for the online access are on the agenda. If you haven't logged into a meeting of the agency previously, it would be helpful to review the instructions on the agenda 15 minutes in advance.
No comments:
Post a Comment