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| A page from CIRM's annual report, which says that the girl is alive today as a result of a clinical trial at UCLA that CIRM helped to finance. |
The California stem cell agency, which is facing financial extinction, this week unveiled its latest annual report, which is a paean to its work and indirectly a pitch to California voters to refinance it with $5.5 billion.
In an item yesterday on the agency's blog, The Stem Cellar, Kevin McCormack, wrote,
"This latest CIRM Annual Report covers 2019 through June 30, 2020. Why? Well, as you probably know we are running out of money and could be funding our last new awards by the end of this year. So, we wanted to produce as complete a picture of our achievements as we could – keeping in mind that we might not be around to produce a report next year."
State law requires the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), as the agency is formally known, to produce an annual report, much as publicly traded companies do. State law also forbids the use of taxpayer funds in ballot campaigns. But it does not forbid state agencies from engaging in their normal public information work.
Dubbed "Perseverance: From Theory to Therapy," the annual report cost $34,000, according to the agency. The document makes a compelling case for adding $5.5 billion to the $3 billion voters provided in 2004 when they created CIRM.
The multibillion dollar figures, however, do not include the projected interest costs to taxpayers, which bring the total estimated expense to something in the neighborhood of $13 billion.
The $13 billion is also not mentioned in the annual report from CIRM, which is in keeping with the usual annual report traditions involving both public and private enterprises. They generally do not dwell on information that could be construed as less than upbeat, if at all possible.
As expected, the report speaks highly of the agency's work, citing the 64 clinical trials in which it is involved. At the same time, a casual reader is likely left with the impression that CIRM financed the total cost of all of those trials, which is not the case.
In another example of pushing the envelope, the document celebrates a study last fall that said that CIRM had an economic impact of more than $12 billion. CIRM characterized the report as "independent." CIRM actually paid USC, which has received $114 million from CIRM for stem cell research, another $206,000 to prepare the economic report.
The annual report stated that the agency's efforts had a "significant impact" on the state's economy, which was estimated at $3.2 trillion annually in 2019. Twelve billion is 0.4 percent of that overall figure, something less than significant.
CIRM's $5 million Covid-19 round is mentioned prominently at the front of the annual report in a move that CIRM hopes will resonate with voters when they are marking their ballots for or against Proposition 14, the stem cell measure. The $5 million is, again, a tiny amount when compared to the billions being spent nationally for Covid research.
All that is not to say that CIRM has not performed significant work. It definitely has left a major mark on the stem cell field nationally and even globally. Some of the 2,000 people participating in the clinical trials have benefited. The agency has fostered collaboration on stem cell research between institutions that probably would not have occurred without a financial stimulus from CIRM. And it has created a new, speedy, grant-review model that puts research money in the hands of researchers more quickly.
More can be said, but you can find it all in what perhaps will be the last annual report from an enterprise that is unique in California history and unique in size and scope among all the 50 states.
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