CIRM Ill-served by Withholding Routine Information

With some considerable pride, the California stem cell agency issued a press release earlier this month that it was hosting a San Francisco meeting beginning today of the world's leading agencies involved in financing stem cell research.

It wasn't exactly news. The event and CIRM's role were known to most folks who follow the agency. However, the meeting and how the agency handled requests for information about it demonstrate some of the continuing problems at CIRM with openness and transparency.

Hosting the event seems a legitimate and worthwhile endeavor. As California stem cell Chairman Robert Klein noted in the news release, hosting the International Stem Cell Forum is another demonstration of CIRM's leadership. It also will help facilitate cooperation with activities in California.

However, CIRM has refused to answer one simple and basic question – roughly how much is the hosting going to cost? Keep in mind that CIRM is a state agency. Its financial affairs are all legally public. Keep in mind also that CIRM went out of its way to call attention to its role in the event at the Hotel Monaco, a luxury boutique hotel with rates running from about $250 to $500 a night. The agency should have been prepared to answer routine questions about its news release, such as the cost of a particular activity.

We began making inquiries on Feb. 19. Simple questions: what does "hosting" the event entail, what is the location of the meeting and whether it is open to the public. A spokesperson for CIRM came back quickly the same day with a partial response. She said that hosting includes "paying for the meeting room at the hotel where the meeting is taking place as well as the audio visual set up and possibly some things like copies. We are also paying for 2 dinners (but not alcohol)." After some prompting, the location was disclosed a day later.

But despite additional inquiries, no estimated cost has been forthcoming. One CIRM justification for not supplying a ballpark figure is that it might not be exact. Another is that it takes too much staff time to dig up the estimate.

We assume that CIRM budgets with some care. That means that the estimated cost would be readily available in a matter of minutes from whomever is currently handling CIRM's bookkeeping. The more likely reason for withholding the information is that someone very high in the organization is concerned that the figure might appear too extravagant and generate unfavorable comment.

This is not the first time CIRM has stonewalled on an event cost. One particular case comes to mind – the first scientific meeting that the agency sponsored a couple of years ago.

In both cases, the agency is ill-served by refusing to release routine information about its activities. Ultimately, the cost will come to light. All CIRM achieves at this point is to foster suspicion and speculation about what other, much more important information is being withheld, such as the breaches last year by some of its directors of CIRM's conflict-of-interest policies. Those remained hidden until disclosed here and by the San Francisco Chronicle.

As for our question about whether the meeting is public, the answer is no. That raises a whole host of additional questions about whether public funds should be used for meetings that bar the very persons who finance them.

(Here is a link to the only news story we have seen on the event.)

Trounson Expands on His International Perspective

The new president of the California stem cell agency, Alan Trounson, is expressing a strong interest in engaging scientists elsewhere in the world and nation in the state's $3 billion research program, although he said such an effort may require funding from outside the agency.

In response to questions from the California Stem Cell Report, the Australian scientist (see photo) elaborated via email on his statements at the time of his selection as the head of the world's largest single funding source for human embryonic stem cell research.

Trounson had said his new assignment at CIRM provided an opportunity to engage internationally with other groups to avoid duplication of effort and speed development of cures. However, state law concerning CIRM requires virtually all of its efforts to be focused within California, requirements that earlier this year surfaced in connection with approval of a $2.6 million research grant to a non-profit, Los Angeles subsidiary of a South Korean organization, CHA Health Systems.

The CHA grant is still apparently under an administrative compliance review along with many others approved at the same time in March. The grant was not mentioned in the questions we submitted to Trounson nor did he speak specifically to it. We asked him only to elaborate on his statement concerning efforts with other nations and states. Trounson said,

"I would like to engage research groups working in other states and particular countries in collaborations with Californian scientists and clinicians. This might be achieved by having jointly funded workshops, study programs, scientific exchanges, research projects and clinical trials. I need to find out whether CIRM funds can be used in this way or whether we need to find other mechanisms to do this. The aim is to avoid duplication and accelerate the application of discoveries into the clinic - this is the primary outcome sought and needed by Californians."

Other questions and Trounson's responses:

CSCR: What are the three greatest challenges facing you at CIRM?

Trounson:
"1. Integrating the pipeline of stem cell discovery, translation and application in the clinic
"2. Demonstration of therapeutic benefit in a variety of applications
"3. Achieving a full comprehension by education, of the nature and potential benefits of stem cells throughout the whole community."

CSCR: Working in California state government also means dealing with open records and open meeting laws which sometimes have given pause to others new to such requirements. What is your comfort level with such laws?

Trounson: "Transparency is a simpler form of conducting an activity such as that involving the CIRM, where the entire community has an interest. I welcome the open format."

CSCR: Other observations you feel are important?

"I need time to focus on and analyze the efficiency of delivery of the CIRM strategy and to format priorities for the CIRM building on the very sound base achieved by the founders."

Down Under With The Niche and Robert Klein

California stem cell Chairman Robert Klein hobnobbed this week with scientists from around the world in Cairns, Australia, at the convention of the International Society of Stem Cell Research.

"The Niche," the new stem cell blog of Nature magazine, reported on some of Klein's doings at the conference, saying that Klein is joining the advisory board for the society. Monya Baker reported that Harvard scientist and incoming president of the society George Daley says Klein is supposed to help ISSCR "figure out what its mission should be."

She said that Daley also wants a "very philanthropically involved" board so the group does not always have to be raising funds.

Baker continued:

"I’m waiting to talk to Klein right now, sitting on the edge of a platform as the crew dismantles a stage in wet Cairns, Australia. He’s talking to three intent people, one a lady in a wheelchair. I’m catching words like 'motivating people' and 'networking' Behind him, a serious-looking woman is taking copious notes. I wish my hand moved that fast. She’s the one who led Klein away when I tried to talk to him."

The headline on Baker's item described Klein as the "Prop. 71 instigator."

The Canadian-California Stem Cell Treaty

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger did not exactly blow the dome off the Capitol -- newswise -- with his stem cell announcement in Canada yesterday.

Coverage was minimal. Perhaps the most details can be found on the governor's web site. California stem cell Chairman Robert Klein, who traveled to Canada as part of the governor's party, is also featured there with a video blog on stem cell matters.

Some excerpts from the governor's statement:

"(Ontario Premier)Premier McGuinty announced the formation of a new Cancer Stem Cell Consortium that will bring together the best minds and resources in California and Canada to fight cancer through stem cell research.

"This project was initiated by the stem cell and regenerative medicine working group of the Canada-California Strategic Innovation Partnership, a unique collaboration between California and Canada stakeholders from academia, the private sector and government."

"The Ontario Institute of Cancer Research will donate the first $30 million (Canadian) to fund the Consortium, benefiting both Canadian and Californian researchers."

"UC Berkeley's Stem Cell Center and Canada's International Regulome Consortium will coordinate research and take advantage of each institution's expertise."

$30 Million California-Canadian Stem Cell Effort

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is off on a Canadian junket – privately funded – to promote stem cell research and wine, among other things.

According to some reports, he is scheduled to announce, along with Canadian counterparts, a $30 million stem cell research effort involving the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and a cancer stem cell consortium in Ontario and California.

According to Robert Benzie of the Toronto Star:

"Schwarzenegger will disclose a new project between the University of California at Berkeley and the International Regulome Consortium, led by Michael Rudnicki, scientific director of Canada's Stem Cell Network and director of Ottawa's Sprott Centre for Stem Cell Research."

Beyond that, little was known about the project, although it appears to be an effort worked out between the researchers with the politicians weighing in at announcement time. Schwarzenegger's own Web site did not mention it on its home page this morning, which emphasized the wine aspects of the trip.

The governor's Canadian foray attracted some controversy because it was privately funded with none of the donors disclosed.

Kevin Yamamura wrote in The Sacramento Bee about the private nature of the trip, although he did include a list of some of the top corporate executives accompanying the governor.

Yamamura quoted Bob Stern, president of the Institute for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles, as saying,

"Why can't the state pay for it? It just looks wrong. Basically, you're having special interests pay for the trip. If taxpayers were paying, we'd know it's all California-taxpayer related."