Showing posts with label covid-19. Show all posts
Showing posts with label covid-19. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 05, 2020

UC Irvine Named for Covid-19 Trial Backed by California Stem Cell Agency and Giuliani

A New Jersey firm backed by $750,000 from the California stem cell agency today announced that the California location of its Covid-19 trial will be at UC Irvine.

The firm is Celularity, Inc., and its proposed therapy is supported by Rudi Giuliani, President Trump's personal lawyer.  Celularity expects to complete its work by Nov. 30.

CIRM said the research involves "a phase I/II study of human placental hematopoietic stem cell derived natural killer cells for the treatment of adults with COVID-19."

The award was made June 26 by the agency's governing board, which expected its Covid grantees to be ready to start work within 30 days under its fast-track Covid round. Celularity had not responded to questions about the trial location prior to its news release today. The stem cell agency cannot fund research outside of California. 

The company's news release indicated there would be more locations in California, but did not disclose any. 



Tuesday, August 04, 2020

California's $5.5 Billion Stem Cell Campaign and Covid-19: How Science and Politics Marry

Editor's note: The following item written by the producer of the California Stem Cell Report appeared yesterday on the Capitol Weekly online news service. 
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The California stem cell agency has just finished pumping $5.3 million into the fight to save the lives of COVID-19 victims. And — in a ballot-box bonus — its efforts are already surfacing in the ballot campaign to rescue the agency from its own demise.
The agency is running out of money. It will begin closing its doors this fall without major financial support that it hopes will come from Proposition 14, a $5.5 billion bond measure on the November ballot.
The $5.3 million in the fast-track, Covid program is tiny by comparison. But the awards are likely to play a heftier role than might be anticipated based on their size. Stories about the Covid awards have appeared on the campaign website in a move to tap into the deep public concern about the coronavirus.
The Covid research piggybacks on the federal “warp speed” drive to develop Covid treatments and is aimed at demonstrating that the agency is part of what CIRM officials describe as a worldwide, “all-hands-on-deck” effort.
Three clinical trials have been funded, which involve actual patients as opposed to laboratory research. If the trials are successful, patients who have benefited are likely to surface in campaign video advertising aimed at refinancing the agency, formally known as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).
CIRM sorely needs research results that will resonate with voters. The 2004 ballot campaign that created the $3 billion program raised expectations that stem cell therapies were right around the corner. But the agency has yet to produce a stem cell treatment that is widely available to the public.
The agency launched its Covid round on March 27 when CIRM board chairman Jonathan Thomas declared, “The coronavirus is creating an unprecedented threat to all of us, and, as one of the leading players in regenerative medicine, we are committed to doing all we can to develop the tools and promote the research that will help us respond to that threat.”
Indeed, failure by CIRM to respond to the COVID-19 threat — it could be argued — would be a breach of CIRM’s public responsibilities.CIRM’s Covid research financing is a case where an urgent medical need marries nicely with ballot-box politics. The agency is forbidden by law to campaign for the ballot measure. But its charter also allows it to pursue a wide range of research possibilities.
Late last month, CIRM directors capped off the round by approving two awards and adding nearly $300,000 to the original authorization of $5 million. All of the awards have been made under an emergency process that requires awardees to be ready to begin research within 30 days and achieve “a clear deliverable within six months.”
The final awards went for basic level research. Earlier, CIRM approved funds to assist in the three clinical trials, which are the final stage before a treatment can be approved for widespread public use. The trial awards range from $1 million to $701,000 each, a bargain price for joining a trial. Most of CIRM’s previous clinical trial awards run into many millions.
CIRM now counts a total of 64 clinical trials that it is helping to finance. Two of the Covid trials are taking place at the University of California, San Francisco-UC Davis and the City of Hope in the Los Angeles area. The third involves a New Jersey firm called Celularity, Inc., which has failed to respond to multiple questions about the California location of its trial. The agency is limited to funding activities within the state. CIRM directors approved the Celularity award on June 26, more than 30 days ago.
You can find more information about all the awards in a series of items on CIRM’s blog, The Stem Cellar, using the search term “covid.”   Five CIRM/Covid stories, including CIRM blog items about the Covid round, have been placed on the campaign website by the campaign staff. 

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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.

Monday, July 27, 2020

California's Stem Cell Covid Round Ends: Three Clinical Trials, 17 Awards

The California stem cell agency has finished its special round of Covid-19 awards, adding three clinical trials to bring its total to 64 plus 14 other awards totaling in all $5.3 million. 

The final awards were made on Friday in the emergency, fast-track round. However, the agency noted that additional Covid awards are possible through its existing awards process and today issued a "special call" for applications in its Quest awards program.  The deadline is Aug. 31.

The agency said in an email, 
"For this special edition of DISC2, the overall timeline and award amount have been capped at 12 months and $250,000, respectively. The expected outcome, at the end of the award, is a candidate therapeutic, diagnostic, medical device, or tool that can immediately progress to translational stage activities."
Last week's awards of $250,000 each went to Karen Christman at UC San Diego and Lili Yang at UCLA.

Christman hopes to develop a treatment for acute respiratory distress syndrome, the agency said, a life-threatening lung injury that occurs when fluid leaks into the lungs and is prevalent in COVID-19 patients.  Her research involves extracellular matrix hydrogels, a structure that provides support to surrounding cells.

Yang is seeking to use blood stem cells to create invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells, a powerful type of immune cell with the potential to clear virus infection and mitigate harmful inflammation.

For more details, the agency's review summary for Christman's application (DISC2COVID19-12007 #2 ) can be found here. The summary of Yang's review (DISC2COVID19-12020) can be found here. Yang also sent a letter to the agency board as did Christman.

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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.


Friday, July 17, 2020

Covid Clinical Trial Location Still Missing on $750,000 California Stem Cell Grant

The California stem cell agency stipulates that winners of research awards in its fast-track, Covid-19 round must be ready to start work within a month of approval, but a New Jersey firm that snagged $750,000 three weeks ago has yet to report the location of its California work.

The  firm is Celularity, Inc. Its proposed therapy is backed by Rudi Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, who has also touted other possible Covid therapies, including one that has been rejected by the Food and Drug Administration.

The $750,000 is intended to finance a clinical trial someplace in California. The stem cell agency funds only California work.

In creating the Covid round, CIRM said award winners must be "ready to start work within 30 days of approval and propose achieving a clear deliverable within six months." It has been 21 days since the Celularity award was approved. 

The California Stem Cell Report has asked the firm repeatedly for the location of the California site but it has not responded with this routine information. The agency itself also has not disclosed the location and defers to the company.  

Celularity updated the information today that it files with the National Institutes of Health on the trial. However, the locations of the trial still did not show any in California. 




Monday, July 13, 2020

Covid Research Backed by California's Stem Cell Agency: 15 Awards, Including Help with Three Clinical Trials

The California stem cell agency is down to its last $272,357 in its special, $5 million effort to help finance research involving Covid-19.

The research round began in May and has approved 15, fast-track research projects, including participation in three clinical trials. The latest awards were approved last Friday by agency directors. 

  • Evan Snyder of Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute received $250,000  to create lung organoids to test two drug candidates for treatment of the virus.
  • John Zaia of the City of Hope received an additional $250,000 for his previously approved study dealing the use of convalescent plasma treatments. 
  • Steven Dowdy at UC San Diego was awarded $150,000 to study a more effective way of delivering a genetic medicine, called siRNA, into the lungs of infected patients.

Summaries of the CIRM application review on the grants can be found here, including the six rejected.  

Approval of the latest awards came as a New Jersey firm that two weeks ago received a $750,000 award still has not disclosed the location of its clinical trial site in California. By law, the stem cell agency can only finance work within California.

The awardee is Celularity, Inc., a business whose proposed therapy is backed by Rudi Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, who has also touted other possible Covid therapies, including one that has been rejected by the Food and Drug Administration.

In creating the Covid round, CIRM said award winners must be "ready to start work within 30 days of approval and propose achieving a clear deliverable within six months." It has been 16 days since the Celularity award was approved. 

The California Stem Cell Report has asked the firm repeatedly for the location of the California site but it has not responded. The agency itself also has not disclosed the location and defers to the company.

Wednesday, July 01, 2020

Celularity and $750K from California Stem Cell Agency: Where is the Money Being Spent?

The New Jersey firm that was awarded $750,000 by the California stem cell agency to help finance a Covid-19 clinical trial has four trial sites in two states, but has not identified any in California. 

State law requires that awards from its taxpayer-funded stem cell agency be spent for work in California. 

The firm is Celularity, Inc., which is developing a product that has been fast-tracked by the federal government and which has the support of President Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. 

According to the National Institutes of Health website this morning, Clinicaltrials.gov, Celularity has three clinical trial sites in its home state of New Jersey and one in Washington state for the Covid therapy. The information shows that all of those sites are currently recruiting patients. The estimated primary completion date of the work is Nov. 30, 2020.

Although the stem cell agency said on Sunday that a trial site existed in California, it declined to disclose the location. The agency referred questions about a site in California to the company, which has not responded to three requests yesterday and today for information.

Corey Casper, interim president of the Infectious Disease Research Institute in Seattle, is listed as the principal investigator for the trial by Celularity. Casper spoke to stem cell agency directors on May 15 on behalf of the application. Casper also did not respond to inquiries about the location of the California work. 

Six weeks ago, when Celularity's application first came before directors of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), Casper said the treatment "has a biologic plausibility for being very important and very unique in its treatment for Covid disease."

He continued,
"I think that we have adequate safeguards that have been put into the trial to really assure the safety of the participants."
Safety concerns have been raised by CIRM's grant reviewers as well as by other scientists. The reviewers, who are from outside California, originally rejected the application, giving it a score of 84, one below the cutoff point. After Celularity addressed reviewers' concerns, it scored 85 and was sent to directors who approved it last Friday with no debate.

It is CIRM's 64th clinical trial.

Monday, June 29, 2020

Rudy Giuliani and Covid-19: A California Stem Cell Angle

Capitol Weekly, an online service that covers California government and political news, this morning carried an article dealing with an award last week involving a Covid-19 clinical trial. Here is an excerpt from the freelance piece by yours truly. 

"California’s stem cell agency last week awarded $750,000 to a New Jersey firm to help finance a clinical trial for the firm’s proposed Covid-19 treatment — a therapy that has been hailed by President Trump’s personal attorney as having “real potential.” 
"The firm is Celularity, Inc. Its president and co-founder is Robert Hariri, who describes himself as a longtime friend of Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer. The speedy passage of Celularity’s proposed product through the federal drug approval gauntlet has attracted attention from the New York Times as well as the respected STAT biomedical online news service and other media. 
"Last Friday, directors of the taxpayer-funded stem cell agency, formally known as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine(CIRM), approved Celularity’s $750,000 application with no discussion. The headline on a STAT article on March 31 said, Rudy Giuliani wants FDA to fast-track a stem cell therapy for Covid-19; critics see political meddling.”" 
For more details, see Capitol Weekly.





Sunday, June 14, 2020

$500,000 to Fight Covid-19 from California's Stem Cell Program

The California stem cell agency on Friday awarded a total of $500,000 to two UCLA scientists to help in the fight against Covid-19, including early stage research aimed at boosting the immune response of older persons. 

The grants are part of a $5 million, "emergency" Covid round that is aimed at fast-tracking promising research. 

Song Li (left) and Vaithilingaraja
Arumugaswami, UCLA photos
Vaithilingaraja Arumugaswami
received $350,000 for work dealing with Berzosertib, a therapy targeting viral replication and damage in lung stem cells. 
Arumugaswami said in a UCLA news release
"Clinical trials have shown that Berzosertib blocks the DNA repair pathway in cancer cells, but has no effects on normal, healthy cells. For this reason, we think this drug shows great promise for treating COVID-19 patients and could be rapidly and safely be deployed in the clinic."

Song Li received $150,000 to help develop an injectable biomaterial that can induce the formation of T memory stem cells, which are important in generating an immune response. 

Li said that if his work is successful, it could have applications well beyond Covid-19. A summary of reviewer comment on his application (DISC2COVID) can be found here. 

Directors of the agency rejected six applications in their action on Friday. Summaries of all application reviews can be found here. 

The stem cell agency, which is running out cash, is now supporting 11 Covid-19 projects, including two clinical trials. The fast-track Covid round is accepting applications every two weeks. More awards are expected when agency directors meet again on June 26. 

The agenda at that time will include other matters such as the budget for the coming 12 months, including a wind-down schedule should voters reject a $5.5 billion ballot measure to refinance the agency, which is running out of money. 
  

Friday, May 29, 2020

California's Stem Cell Agency Backs More Covid Research in its $5 Million Round

The California stem cell agency this afternoon awarded a total of $450,000 to three researchers to fight Covid-19, which has infected nearly 91,000 persons in the Golden State and nearly 1.8 million nationally.

The action brought to nine the number of awards made in the agency's $5 million Covid round, which now has about $2.5 million remaining. 

Today's awards involved basic research, including a project aimed at a vaccine. Maria Millan, CEO of the agency, known formally as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), said in a news release. 
"“These three projects highlight three very different approaches to combatting the acute devastating health manifestations of Covid-19 as well as the debilitating sequelae that impact the ability to recover from the acute illness. Through this Covid funding opportunity, CIRM is enabling researchers to re-direct work they have already done, often with CIRM support, to quickly develop new approaches to Covid-19."
The vaccine research award (application number DISC2COVID19- 11941) went to Albert Wong of Stanford. The $149,000 grant will be used to develop a cellular response to beef up immunity. A CIRM news release said Wong's "team will use the experience it gained using CIRM funds ($3 million) to (fight) glioblastoma, a deadly brain cancer, to advance a similar approach to produce an effective cellular immune response to combat Covid-19."

CIRM directors directed Wong to apply for a supplement of up to $100,000 to cover more work to assure that his work has application to under-served and under-researched communities that have been the most seriously affected by Covid.

Another Stanford scientist, Helen Blau, was awarded $149,996 (DISC2COVID19-11920) to help prevent atrophy of the diaphragms in Covid patients on mechanical ventilation. 

Jianhua Yu of the City of Hope was awarded $150,000 (DISC2COVID19-11947) for research to turn umbical cord blood cells into natural killer cells that would target Covid. The research would leverage existing studies that the City of Hope has developed to treat cancer. 

Summaries of the reviews of their applications and scores can be found here. That web page also includes summaries of the review of the 10 applications that were rejected. 

CIRM directors are expected to meet again within the next couple of weeks to fund more Covid research under its fast-track effort to combat the disease. The agency was created 15 years ago with $3 billion in state funding, but it is running out of money and will begin closing its doors this fall unless more funds are forthcoming. 

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

California Stem Cell Agency Backs Away from Covid Vaccine Plan; Concerns Raised About Mission Creep

Directors of the $3 billion California stem cell agency have rejected a Covid-19 proposal to extend the agency's reach beyond stem cells, expressing concerns about mission creep, public relations and dilution of cash for other important research.

The case in point last Friday was "emergency" consideration of a plan to fund Covid-19 vaccine development as part of a $5 million special round of funding. The federal government has already allocated nearly $1 billion for vaccine development. More than 100 vaccine projects are underway globally.

Shlomo Melmed of Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles was one of the directors of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) who opposed the proposal. He described the likelihood of CIRM being successful in helping to develop a vaccine was "pie in the sky."  He said, 
"We should be realistic about how that may look good on our website...but the reality is that this whole project (is) not going to have major, short-term impact barring some wonderful serendipity.

"And, and to come back to the original trust of the voters of California in CIRM, I really do think that we are deviating from our mission and ought not dilute our impact, which is so necessary and so vital."
Friday's discussion was triggered by a proposal to declare vaccine development a "vital research opportunity(VRO)" and make it eligible for state funding.

CIRM directors have approved a VRO only twice in the 15 years that the agency has existed. One was for gene therapy research. Another involved blood plasma, a possible Covid-19 treatment.

The VRO loophole is contained in the ballot initiative that created the agency in 2004, but was little noticed at the time. The same provision exists in the proposed initiative to refinance the financially strapped agency with $5.5 billion more. The initiative also contains language that would expand the scope of CIRM and, in some cases, require it to delve into major new areas. The initiative has not yet qualified for the November ballot.

Director Jeff Sheehy, an HIV/AIDs patient advocate member of the board, said,
"As an agency we're taking a much broader and much more sophisticated view of what our mission is. It's morphed. If we were being true to our original mission, we would only be doing embryonic stem cell research....(T)hat's what we the voters asked us to do in 2004."
Director Steve Juelsgaard, a former top executive at Genentech, said that the amount of funding that CIRM could provide was only "a drop in the bucket," given its financial condition. He added, "I think we're just getting way off course here."

Director Keith Yamamoto, vice chancellor of science policy at UC San Francisco, said the search for Covid treatments is "urgent and important." But he added that the agency would be "well advised to kind of stay in our lane" because of the important work that it was intended to do. He reminded directors of the hundreds of millions of dollars already allocated by other entities for vaccine work.

During an earlier part of the discussion, Jonathan Thomas, chairman of the CIRM board, said that the vaccine proposal had been the subject of robust internal discussion at the agency. He said that the idea behind it was to assist in the Covid crisis: "going a little bit above and beyond to try to help."

Thomas gave Sheehy, chairman of the board's science committee, a "shout-out" for suggesting the idea of discussing the concept of a VRO in connection with a vaccine. During his comments, Sheehy suggested that if the agency wanted to make an impact on vaccine development it would need to remove "the stem cell handcuffs." But he added he was "agnostic" on the matter.

Over the weekend, Sheehy, who has raised questions about the $5.5 billion initiative, responded at length to a follow-up inquiry by the California Stem Cell Report. He said:
"To sum up, I'm not really sure what the board is trying to accomplish with its Covid program.  I'm not sure that the board has a clear, coherent view of the scope of CIRM's research.  And I am not sure the board has a clear idea of what the scientific mission of CIRM should be in the event that new funding comes from the voters."

Ultimately, the CIRM board said it would vigorously support research platforms that have stem cell elements that could help in vaccine development. That position, however, was not as expansive as originally proposed. It does not require a VRO and falls within the agency's normal scope.

Directors also approved raising the funding cap on some elements within the current $5 million Covid-19 round. They are scheduled to meet again this Friday at 1 p.m. to consider more Covid applications. The online sessions are open to the public, members of which can comment on all matters. Directions are on the agenda.

Text of Sheehy's comments re Covid-19, CIRM, Its Mission and Other Matters

The discussion at the May 23, 2020, meeting of the governing board of the California stem cell agency ranged from Covid-19 and the agency's strapped financial condition to its mission and priorities. One of the directors, Jeff Sheehy, elaborated on the matters and more when he responded to an inquiry following the meeting from the California Stem Cell Report.


The California Stem Cell Report has a policy of running verbatim comments from stem cell agency board members and other interested parties. If other readers would like to submit their comments on this subject or other stem cell matters, please direct them to djensen@californiastemcellreport.com.


Below is the verbatim text of Sheehy's comments.

"First, I felt a great deal of uncertainty around CIRM proposing a COVID program.  Having worked towards stem cell therapies for HIV since I came onto the board in 2004, I felt some skepticism around stem cell approaches targeting infectious diseases (ID).  Infectious disease has not been a particularly major focus of regenerative medicine efforts and many of the approaches we have tried have struggled.  I think there could be a role, but we have a long way to go.  


"I thought, in general, a focus on ID is a bit overdue, but I was very concerned about taking funds from sickle cell, where I think there is a strong case for believing we are on track for a cure using stem cell technology, and there are well constructed clinical trials such as the one we just funded.  


"Given that CIRM is using its last of its funding, I was also concerned about the funding needed.  One of the most telling moments in Friday's meeting was the descriptions by (CIRM Director) Dr. (Keith) Yamamoto (vice chancellor for science policy at UCSF) of the ready and ample availability of Covid funding from the NIH and other federal sources, not just in new funds but also the ability to repurpose existing grants towards Covid.


"Btw, I am not alone in my skepticism around stem cells for Covid-19.  I offer first the tweet from Dr. Sean Morrison, former head of ISSCR on March 29:


"'There is no stem cell therapy for Covid19. We would not expect stem cells to have any therapeutic value for people with Covid19.

@ISSCR'"


"Then a couple of weeks ago, Dr. Paul Knoepfler on his blog, the NICHE, offered this:

"'The idea of testing stem cells for Covid-19 may be music to the ears of some folks as an opportunity, but to me from the beginning it sounded mostly like a spaghetti on the wall road to trouble.

"'There is buzz out there that some kind of stem cells or other cells will help with COVID-19. The reality is that that’s probably not going to happen.

"'Even so, a whole range of people and firms are somewhat exaggerating and in a few cases outright hyping the odds of success. That is harming patients and the cell medicine field.'"


"I offer these two comments in support of my doubts.  But, I also feel the urgency surrounding Covid.  This is my second pandemic, having lived through HIV/AIDS and lost and continue to lose countless people that I care deeply about and living with the disease myself, having endured enormous stigma and outright hatred along with indifference from a president, seeing marginalized communities suffering death and disease disproportionately and indifference because people don't recognize the humanity of the populations most impacted, feeling triggered and re-traumatized by this second pandemic and the enormous stupidity from all points in trying to make a disease fit their self described perceptions of reality in the face of what is real and undeniable.


"I voted to support the COVID program despite my doubts due to urgency, but we know what tools work against infectious diseases -- antivirals and vaccines, and I became an enthusiastic and vocal supporter of the vital research opportunity for convalescent plasma.  Convalescent plasma is about as far removed from CIRM as a project could be--a technology at least 100 years old with zero barriers to receiving funding from any source.  But, in the absence of a vaccine or antivirals, it represented to me the best and most rational chance to make a difference in patients now. Plus, Zaia et al at City of Hope have the cell handling and manufacturing ability to address some of the factors limiting use and evaluation of convalescent plasma, e.g. potency and consistency of product to name a couple.


"After having participated in reviews, our two clinical projects are the convalescent plasma one and an ongoing $14 million trial for mesenchymal stem cells for ARDS, the lung complication suffered by critical COVID patients necessitating ventilator support.  That UCSF/UC Davis trial is already treating COVID patients at SF General and in Houston to name a couple of sites, and it was supportable because we were availing more patients of access to that therapy like we are doing with convalescent plasma. But both approaches are well supported outside of CIRM and the $750K we gave each project.  


"The $150K Discovery projects we funded are interesting, but they are very early in development and given the time and money it takes to move from discovery into translation into clinical trials, these antiviral products could likely be superseded by the host of antiviral products in trials around the world.

In that context, we did see a couple of interesting vaccine proposals that were very far afield and did not score in the fundable range.  I had a feeling -- having looked at the vaccine trials underway (and I'm not an expert btw)  -- that they seemed very much based in the most part on proven tech that a far-out, left field approach might be useful to explore.  HIV has been stubbornly resistant to vaccine development, so I'm very cautious about that field.  I was heartened to hear (CIRM Director) Dr. (Kristiina) Vuori from Sanford Burnham opine that she thought that current vaccine approaches were, to paraphrase, following usual pathways, and I thought I heard a suggestion that opening up CIRM to vaccine work might elicit something novel.


"However, the board thought otherwise and I defer to their wisdom.


"I would note that I was intrigued by the discussion around CIRM's mission.  As Dr. (Gil) Sambrano (CIRM vice president for portfolio development) noted, stem cells are ubiquitous in the body, and I took that to mean that one could either be elastic or inelastic in accepting products.  A vaccine, for instance, would almost necessarily  impact T memory stem cells, which are a crucial part of the adaptive immune response to disease (and a vaccine).  We have begun to recognize the limits of stem cell centric therapies through our VRO for gene therapy.


"I then asked myself, does CIRM hews to its original mission per Prop. 71?  I looked up the original funding mission for the Grants Working Group :


"'(C) In order to ensure that institute funding does not duplicate or supplant existing funding, a high priority shall be placed on funding pluripotent stem cell and progenitor cell research that cannot, or is unlikely to, receive timely or sufficient federal funding, unencumbered by limitations that would impede the research. In this regard, other research categories funded by the National Institutes of Health shall not be funded by the institute....Notwithstanding subparagraph (C), other scientific and medical research and technologies may be funded by the institute if at least two-thirds of a quorum of the members of the Scientific and Medical Research Funding Working Group recommend to the ICOC that such a research proposal is a vital research opportunity.'


"With the federal ban ended, all of CIRM's research is really a vital research opportunity by default at this point.  Per COVID and ample federal funding, any funding in that arena is about as far afield as one could get.


"Even with fetal tissue research, which, btw, has fallen off the radar in the media and with some in Congress and the Administration, I can guarantee no one is talking about banning that.  You simple cannot develop vaccines or antivirals without mice with humanized immune systems created by using fetal tissue.


"To sum up, I'm not really sure what the board is trying to accomplish with its COVID program.  I'm not sure that the board has a clear, coherent view of the scope of CIRM's research.  And I am not sure the board has a clear idea of what the scientific mission of CIRM should be in the event that new funding comes from the voters.


"I would note as an aside that CIRM has never submitted its scientific program, including all grants made and their impact, to a rigorous, independent scientific review.  


"In short, I don't think we really know at CIRM where we've been and where we want to go.  We have anecdotes...."


(Sheehy’s own ellipses in the last paragraph)


Thursday, May 21, 2020

"Emergency" Meeting Tomorrow Morning; California Stem Cell Agency Wants to Expand Scope of its Covid Awards

With only 24 hours notice, California's $3 billion stem cell agency today called a meeting for tomorrow to significantly expand the scope of its Covid-19 round to include vaccine development and to permit "supplemental funding."

If the changes are approved tomorrow, scientists could file their applications up until next Tuesday to be considered in the next application review session, probably within 10 days to two weeks.  They would have an opportunity to submit another application about two weeks later if all the Covid funds have not been awarded.

Agency directors allotted $5 million for the Covid round. They have awarded about $2 million.

• "Increase scope of early stage opportunities (DISC and TRAN) to include vaccine development studies as a potential vital research opportunity.
 • "Include opportunity for studies on novel ideas and biological mechanisms by opening the DISC1 program announcement.
 • "Allow supplemental funding for active COVID-19 clinical trial awards to expand their efforts.
 • "Include requirement for outreach to underserved populations in all clinical trial proposals 
• "Increase award limit on DISC2 projects and adjust language on 6-month deliverables."

The DISC term generally refers to basic research. The TRAN term refers to translational research.

Normally the agency would not fund vaccine research because it does not involve stem cells. Under the proposal for tomorrow, it would be officially deemed a "vital research opportunity," a loophole in state stem research cell law that allows such funding.  The agency has already invoked the provision in a handful of other instances. 

The supplemental funding change would permit researchers who have already received funding under the Covid-19 round to ask the agency for more cash for their applications. The change would allocate up to $1 million for such awards. 

Under normal conditions the agency's governing board could not meet legally with only 24 hours public notice. The normal legal requirement is 10 days. However, the board is invoking emergency provisions to lift the 10-day notice. 

The 11 a.m. meeting will be available for public participation by the public via phone connections and the Internet. Details are on the agenda.


Friday, May 15, 2020

Today's California Stem Cell Research Awards: $2 Million for Sickle Cell, $1 Million for Covid-19


Guy Sauvageau, founder and CEO, of ExcellThera. 
The firm was awarded $2 million today for a 
clinical trial for sickle cell disease. Video from 
Meeting on the Mesa, October 2019

The California stem cell agency this morning awarded $2 million for research to treat sickle cell disease plus another $1 million to  assist in the battle against Covid-19, which has killed 304,000 persons worldwide and 2,934 in California. 

The sickle cell award went to a Canadian firm, ExcellThera, Inc., that is conducting a clinical trial involving the disease, which afflicts as many as 100,000 Americans, principally African-Americans. The firm is providing $857,143 in matching funds. 

Pierre Caudrelier, chief medical officer at the Montreal firm, is using umbilical cord stem cells from healthy donors, which could help solve the issue of matching and availability of sickle cell treatments. The location of the California work is not yet known. 

Winners in today's Covid round are:

Michael Matthay at UC San Francisco, $750,000, to assist in a clinical trial to develop an injectable biomaterial platform that can induce T memory stem cells and boost immunoactivation to vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, which will help protect elderly people. The trial also involves UC Davis. (application number CLIN2COVID19-11823)

Stuart Lipton at Scripps Research Institute, $150,000, to develop a drug that is both anti-viral and protects the brain against coronavirus-related damage. (application number DISC2COVID19-11811)
 
Justin Ichida at the USC, $150,000, to determine if a drug called a kinase inhibitor can protect stem cells in the lungs, which are selectively infected and killed by the novel coronavirus. (application number DISC2COVID19-11901)

The three Covid-19 awards today leave about $2.9 million in the Covid-19 round. It has rolling application deadlines that surface every two weeks with next coming next Tuesday.

In addition to Matthay, two of the 12 Covid-19 applicants filed appeal letters with the CIRM governing board. They are Song Li of UCLA, appeal letter, and Celularity Inc., of New Jersey, appeal letter


The CIRM governing board rejected Li's and Celularity's applications, but they may resubmit them next Tuesday with modifications. Their scores and rankings can be found here along with the summary of their reviews, as well as summaries of all reviews. 


The stem cell agency, officially known as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine(CIRM), is expected to run out of cash this year. It is hoping that a $5.5 billion, refinancing proposal will qualify for the ballot this fall and be approved by voters. Currently, election officials are trying to determine whether the measure as the necessary number of signatures of registered voters to qualify. 


Here is a link to CIRM's news release on today's meeting.

Stem Cell Treatment for Covid-19: 'Probably Not Going to Happen'

A stem cell researcher at UC Davis is taking a dim view of the likelihood of development of a stem cell therapy for Covid-19, declaring that efforts in the area amount to little more than throwing spaghetti against a wall. 

The bottom line in the article by Paul Knoepfler is:

"There is buzz out there that some kind of stem cells or other cells will help with COVID-19. The reality is that that’s probably not going to happen....A whole range of people and firms are somewhat exaggerating and, in a few cases, outright hyping the odds of success. That is harming patients and the cell medicine field."

Knoepler's somewhat lengthy remarks appeared on his blog, The Niche, two days ago.

They drew a comment on the blog from a member of governing of the state stem cell agency, which has allocated $5 million to help in the fight against the virus. Francisco Prieto, a Sacramento physician, said, 

"Thanks for, as usual, injecting a little thoughtful perspective. There has been a great deal of breathless hype and general agita around everything having to do with COVID-19. Count me as one of those hopeful that something will 'stick to the wall,', but I won’t hold my breath. I would love sometime to sit down and talk about science (and tomatoes!) although I suppose that may have to wait until this pandemic and my time on the board have ended."

Knoepfler's comments come as the stem cell agency, known officially as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine(CIRM), is scheduled to meet this morning to consider 12 applications for Covid-19 funding. Only two out of 12 were approved earlier by the agency's anonymous reviewers, who meet behind closed doors. The approved applications total $300,000. The agency has previously awarded $1 million in its Covid-19 round. 

Asked yesterday whether his remarks applied to the two approved applications, Knoepfler said, 

"No, but it does apply to a number of the not-recommended-for-funding ones."

The two applications involve small molecule drugs. The agency is permitted to finance research other than stem cells if it is a vital research opportunity. That provision -- some might call it a loophole -- also persists in the proposed ballot initiative that would provide CIRM with an additional $5.5 billion. 

Knoepfler is not alone in his skepticism about stem cell possibilities related to Covid-19. Another California stem cell researcher privately told this writer recently that the CIRM Covid-19 round was "ridiculous." And early in April a Texas researcher also expressed skepticism in an account on Knoepfler's blog. On the other hand, a couple of comments on Knoepfler's piece this week took issue with his position. 

The California researcher covered a lot of ground, ranging from the science to the PR. Here are some excerpts.

 "Part of the problem here at least in the US and probably in many other countries is that regulatory bodies like the FDA have dropped the bar so low for IND clearance (or equivalent abroad) for COVID-19 INDs that it incentivizes various teams to try just about anything for the novel coronavirus. Of course, the stem cell and cellular medicine field isn’t the only one having such a low bar from the FDA for COVID-19, but it’s problematic all around.

"The FDA is likely under enormous political pressure to quickly clear INDs for COVID-19 trials, but it should do its best to only clear things that actually have a logical premise and a foundation of solid, even if early data. Note that Celularity was able to get Rudy Giuliani to plug what it was doing and shortly thereafter the FDA cleared their IND."

"The news media also sometimes don’t quite know how to handle the cellular medicine approach to COVID-19. I’ve seen many good stories but then some others just take interviewees’ statements at face value or even hype things further."

Knoepler asked rhetorically: 

"What’s wrong with throwing a whole bunch of stem cell therapies at COVID-19 and just hoping something sticks?

"If the logic just isn’t there to start with then you are giving people false hope. You’re also setting yourself up to try to squeeze something hopeful out of the data once you get it, which is a road to potential big trouble. Your firm may also find itself hyping things. In addition, you’re wasting resources that could go somewhere else like to another clinical trial that makes more sense. For some other things like grant writing, the throw-the-spaghetti-on-the-wall approach can be effective."

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