Headquarters Move by California Stem Cell Agency 'Disappointing' to San Francisco

The San Francisco Chronicle today picked up the story about how “a simple state agency” is moving its $3 billion operation east from San Francisco across the Bay to Oakland.

The newspaper carried the article by Victoria Colliver on its front page, one of the few times that news about the state stem cell agency has made such a splash in its hometown paper during the last 10 years. The story followed yesterday's piece on the California Stem Cell Report, which carried the first published details about the move.

Most of what the Chronicle reported was familiar to our readers but Colliver also had this from Kevin McCormack, senior director for communications for the agency.

“The lease is up now, and this is now one of the hardest real estate markets in the country. We’re a simple state agency, and we don’t have that kind of money. ... San Francisco is just unaffordable to us.”

McCormack said it would have cost the agency $1.5 million to pay for the equivalent space (20,000 square feet) that it now has in San Francisco. Instead, it found a home in Oakland with 17,000 square feet for $697,560 a year.  The agency has about 55 employees.

Colliver’s story began by saying that the stem cell agency is “the latest victim of San Francisco’s ski-high rents.”

The Chronicle quoted Todd Rufo, head of economic development for San Francisco, as saying, “…(W)e’re disappointed to see them go….”

No coverage has yet surfaced in Oakland area media outlets, according to a Google search this morning.

Legal Setback for California Stem Cell Business Snared in Abortion Flap

A California stem cell/human tissue firm appears to be losing its battle to halt damaging videos that have entangled it in an emotional national controversy about abortion, the Washington Post reported today.

An opinion piece by UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh said that the Los Angeles judge in the case “seems to have been persuaded” by the anti-abortion activists to refrain from blocking further distribution of the videos involving StemExpress LLC of Placerville.

Quoting from the judge’s tentative ruling last week, Volokh noted that the First Amendment issues in the case apparently are carrying the day even if the activists violated state law in making the surreptitious videos. The Washington Post piece provided a link to the response by the Center for Medical Progress, an Irvine organization behind the videos. ­­­­­

California Stem Cell Agency Saying So Long to San Francisco

The new HQ location for the California stem cell agency

The city of Oakland does not have the same snap and sizzle as San Francisco, but it will soon have something that the famed city-by-the-bay will not have – the headquarters of an internationally known, $3 billion, stem cell research agency.

California’s taxpayer-financed program, which is arguably the largest, single source of stem cell research funding in the world, is leaving San Francisco this fall and moving across the bay to the sunnier and cheaper climes of Oakland.

The reason is that the agency is no longer the beneficiary of free space in San Francisco and can’t afford to pay sky-high rent to stay there.

Red bubble shows location of new CIRM HQ -- Google map

The new address for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), as the agency is formally known, will be 1999 Harrison St. in Oakland.  CIRM will be housed on the 15th and 16th floors of a granite-clad building overlooking Lake Merritt in the downtown area.

In San Francisco, the agency’s neighbors included Happy Donuts, which also sold Louisiana fried chicken, and the San Francisco Giants baseball park.  In Oakland, its neighbors will include the FBI and Cerexa, Inc., a biotech firm owned by Forest Laboratories of New York. If CIRM workers are missing Happy Donuts fare, Oakland's famous Chicken&Waffles restaurant is only 15 minutes away on the bus.

The stem cell agency enjoyed its rent free location as the result of a bidding war in 2005 among cities in California to acquire the agency headquarters. San Francisco offered a package that it calculated at $18­­­­­­­ million. It also helped San Francisco that Bob Klein, the first chairman of the agency, lived on the San Francisco peninsula.

The agency and its auditor estimate that CIRM saved $12 million in rent and related benefits during the 10 years it has been in San Francisco. That money, however, will ultimately be spent on research or agency expenses.

That includes the rent for the new digs that will run $697,560 annually. The base rate for the 17,097 square feet is $3.40 a foot. The agency will have 14,411 square feet on the 16th floor of the 27-story building and 2,686 on the 15th. 

In response to a query, Kevin McCormack, CIRM’s senior director for communications, said,

“The term for the 16th floor is five years; the term on the 15th floor is three years, with an option to extend by two years to be coterminous with the term on the 16th floor.  This will provide CIRM with the flexibility to reduce its space and rent burden, depending upon the circumstances.”

The agency is expected to run out of cash for new awards in less than five years but will have ongoing functions related to its existing awards.

Costs for tenant improvements are still being calculated along with costs for the move.

Under the San Francisco lease, the owner provided free parking, a significant benefit for the agency employees, which number about 55.  Parking can run to $15 to $20 a day in the agency's current neighborhood, according to sanfrancisco.bestparking.com.

In Oakland, employees will have to pay for their own parking, but the agency is looking into government assistance programs. The location is near a BART station, a mass transit overhead rail system that runs through much of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Over the years, Oakland has presented a changing face to the public. In World War II, it was part of what was described as a “second gold rush” as the result of defense plant operations. In 1966 , the city was the headquarters of the Black Panthers, whose co-founder, Huey Newton, attended high school there. Today Oakland is involved in a wave of gentrification that has created tension­­ within the community.

It may be fitting for the agency to return to what is known as the East Bay area in California. Its first, temporary headquarter was located in Emeryville, just three miles up the road from its new space. 

Text of StemExpress Statement on Cutting Ties to Planned Parenthood

Here is the text of the full statement from StemExpress as provided to the California Stem Cell Report by a spokesman for the firm. 

"StemExpress statement Regarding Termination of Agreements With Planned Parenthood

"StemExpress at its core is a small life sciences company committed to accelerating research, advancing medicine, and saving lives. We partner with organizations also seeking to help researchers find solutions to some of life's most significant medical conditions and diseases. Our commitment to quality defines us and is demanded by our customers in the research community. 

"We value our various partnerships but, due to the increased questions that have arisen over the past few weeks, we feel it prudent to terminate activities with Planned Parenthood. While we value our business relationship with Planned Parenthood, that work represents a small percentage of our overall business activity and we must focus our limited resources on resolving these inquiries.

"StemExpress works tirelessly to accelerate the speed of helping patients globally: 7.6 million people die of cancer each year, another 7.4 million of heart disease, over 4.6 million from lung cancer, AIDS and diabetes and every 12 minutes another name is added to the national transplant waiting list. These numbers drive our work and the research community. StemExpress looks forward to the swift resolution of all inquiries and audits so we can focus our full attention on helping the medical and research community improve and save lives."

California's StemExpress Cuts Links with Planned Parenthood in Anti-Abortion Flap

A California stem cell/human tissue firm has severed its ties with Planned Parenthood in the wake of a national, anti-abortion controversy, the Politico Web site reported late today.

Politico writer Jennifer Haberkorn cited a statement from StemExpress LLC of Placerville, which said,

“We value our various partnerships but, due to the increased questions that have arisen over the past few weeks, we feel it prudent to terminate activities with Planned Parenthood. While we value our business relationship with Planned Parenthood, that work represents a small percentage of our overall business activity and we must focus our limited resources on resolving these inquiries.”

The statement has not been posted on the company’s Web site as of this writing.  (Shortly after this item was published, a spokesman released the text of its statement, which can be found here.)

The company has said in court that it has suffered damage and its executives have been threatened with violence as a result of Internet videos that were made surreptitiously by anti-abortion activists. The activists used fake names and a fake company to gain access to Planned Parenthood officials. StemExpress was identified as one of the purchasers of fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood.

Investigations into the company and Planned Parenthood have been launched by the Senate and the House. The issue has come up in the 2016 presidential race. The U.S. Department of Justice and the California attorney general are looking into whether privacy laws were violated by the anti-abortion activists.

The company has been vilified on the Internet. The latest posting involved a video of a former employee of StemExpress, Holly O’Donnell, who said that “she once saw another technician appear to obtain fetal tissue without a patient’s consent,” Politico reported. StemExpress “unequivocally” denied the claim two days ago.

The firm said,

“Like all of their previous material, (the) video by (the activists) is deceptively edited and falsely worded to suggest impropriety or illegality where none exists. (Their) continued efforts to malign StemExpress—a life-sciences company that predominantly supplies adult cells, blood and tissue to the nation’s leading researchers—will only serve to slow the pace of life-saving medical research aimed at curing disease and extending quality of life for millions of Americans.”

Earlier this week, the activists lost a bid to overturn a temporary restraining order against them. StemExpress said they also “refused to produce witnesses for depositions or respond to document requests previously ordered” by the Los Angeles superior court.

A California Stem Cell Clinical Trial, Eye Disease and Willie Brown

The $3 billion California stem cell agency today reported the kickoff of treatment in another clinical trial and managed to wrap a famous California politician into the story as well.

The research in the trial has been supported by the state at a nominal amount of $19 million. The cost to taxpayers roughly doubles, however, because of interest on the funds, which are borrowed by the state.

Willie Brown

The politician is Willie Brown, former mayor of San Francisco and former speaker of the California Assembly, the second most powerful position in state government, certainly when Brown was in the post.

Brown, now 81, has retinitis pigmentosa(RP), the disease that is targeted by the clinical trial.

­­­­­­­­

Writing on the agency’s Stem Cellar blog, Kevin McCormack, senior director of communications for the agency, said,

“The trial is the work of Dr. Henry Klassen at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). Dr. Klassen just announced the treatment of their first four patients, giving them stem cells that hopefully will slow down or even reverse the progression of RP.”

McCormack continued,

“The patients were each given a single injection of retinal progenitor cells. It’s hoped these cells will help protect the photoreceptors in the retina that have not yet been damaged by RP, and even revive those that have become impaired but not yet destroyed by the disease. 

“The trial will enroll 16 patients in this Phase 1 trial. They will all get a single injection of retinal cells into the eye most affected by the disease. After that, they’ll be followed for 12 months to make sure that the therapy is safe and to see if it has any beneficial effects on vision in the treated eye, compared to the untreated one.”

McCormack said that Klassen's work offers hope to all those afflicted by disease, including the former mayor. Brown is not believed to be in the trial, but identities of patients are not usually revealed. He has said very little publicly about his condition, but recently talked about it during a speech at a conference held by the Everylife Foundation for Rare Diseases.

McCormack reported,

“He described how people thought he was being rude because he would walk by them on the streets and not say hello. The truth is, he couldn’t see them.

“He was famous for driving fancy cars like Bentleys, Maseratis and Ferraris. When he stopped doing that, he said, ‘people thought I was broke because I no longer had expensive cars.’ The truth is his vision was too poor for him to drive.”­­

Brown sponsored a stem cell symposium in 2004 backing the ballot initiative that created the $3 billion stem cell agency. The news media have not reported any recent comments by him on the agency’s work, according to a Google search.

Here are links to the agency’s press release on the trial, an earlier progress report on Klassen’s research and the NIH clinical trial site with enrollment information for the trial.

California's Stem Cell Research Performance; Agency Schedules More Awards

Overview of applications and funding outcomes in CIRM 2.0 as of July 23 -- CIRM chart

Highlights

One contract signed

17 applications received

Demand leveling off

Mills says 'metrics' good

The governing board of the $3 billion California stem cell agency is scheduled to meet on Aug. 20 to give away more millions for late stage preclinical research as part of its ambitious and "radical" overhaul of its funding effort.

The one-hour teleconference meeting will have its­­­ main location in San Francisco. Seven other offsite locations are also available for the public, ranging from Napa to San Diego.

The only item on the agenda is consideration of an unspecified number applications for funding work leading up to a clinical trial. (See here for the request for proposals -- PA15-01.)

The number of applications to be considered and their review summaries are not yet available on the Web site of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), as the agency is formally known. However, they are part of what CIRM President Randy Mills calls CIRM 2.0, what he terms a “radical” change in the way the agency handles applications.

Deadlines for applications in this late-stage research round, funded at $100 million for this fiscal year, come up at the end of every month. The goal is to generate better applications and speed the cash to researchers.

The program began Jan. 1. So far, only one contract has been signed for a research project, Mills reported to the CIRM governing board on July 23. ­­­ However, four have been approved by the CIRM governing board out of 17 that applied between January and June. 

Mills told the board last month,

“The demand is leveling down more closely to what we thought it would be. So in May we received three applications, in June we received two applications.

“The review team was very worried in April when we had five applications because that's more than we actually anticipated we would have, but it seems to be normalizing down around the two or three a month area which is closer to what we had predicted.

 “One other thing I want to point out here -- which was neat in April -- is we sent three programs for what we call budget review. And that's before we send these things to the grants working group for actual scientific adjudication, we send them for external budget review to make sure that the budgets are appropriate for the scope of work being offered.

“We actually had one fail. And I like that because that says that system is working. And if something is going to go through the process and have a budget that's not justifiable, we're able to catch it, and we're able to kick it out. In this case we made them go back and think through their budget a little more closely.

“With all that said, it seems to be working well from a metrics standpoint. We're very pleased. Only in January did we have the one delay, and we haven't had an off mark since.”

In addition to San Francisco, Napa and San Diego, locations where the public can participate in the meeting and lobby for or against a specific research application can be found in Irvine, Redwood City, Sacramento and Los Gatos. Specific addresses can be found on the agenda.

Skirting the Courts to Air Anti-Abortion Videos Attacking California Human Tissue Firm

Conservative organizations are exploring ways to sidestep judicial actions that have put a halt to some of the anti-abortion videos dogging a California stem cell/human tissue firm.

One proposal calls for Congressional committees to place the videos on the public record as a result of a Congressional request. The argument goes that the judges cannot prevent a Congressional hearing at which the videos are presented.

The company involved is StemExpress of Placerville, which was identified in videos taken surreptitiously by anti-abortion activists who used false names and a fake company to win the confidence of Planned Parenthood officials.

Both Senate and House committees are looking into the videos, deploring what was said about obtaining human tissue by the Planned Parenthood employees. Federal and state officials are looking into possible criminal violations by the anti-abortion activists who failed to get legal consent for recording the comments by Planned Parenthood officials.

StemExpress has won a temporary restraining order against further distribution of the videos, arguing that the firm has already been harmed and could be irreparably damaged. The firm also said violence has been threatened against company employees as a result of the videos.

Lawyers with the Heritage Foundation, Hans von Spakovsky and Elizabeth Slattery, wrote last week about the order in an item headlined,

“How Lawmakers Can Beat Planned Parenthood’s Stalling Tactics.”

They said, 

“No federal or state judge has the authority to prevent a congressional committee from holding a hearing at which witnesses … testify about their experiences or where the committee presents evidence it has obtained such as the undercover videos, which could also be posted on the committee’s website.” 

The WND website today picked up the lawyers’ suggestion. Bob Unruh wrote that the issue will escalate despite the current Congressional break. He quoted the Family Research Council as saying,

“The political pressure cooker will only get hotter back home when members hear from unhappy voters firsthand.”

The Congressional ploy would additionally­­ involve the National Abortion Federation, which has also won a restraining order on the videos. Hearings on both temporary restraining orders are scheduled for later this month in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

In a related development, another California tissue firm, Advanced Bioscience Resources of Alameda, surfaced on the Politico Web site in connection with the controversy.

Jennifer Haberkorn and Brett Norman wrote,

“One of the companies (Advanced Bioscience)­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ identified as a fetal tissue supplier in sting videos of Planned Parenthood counts two federal health agencies among its customers, earning at least $300,000 for material used in research of treatments for HIV and eye disease….” 

In addition to a House committee, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has requested information from StemExpress, Advanced Biosciences and Novogenix Laboratories, LLC, of Los Angeles, about their policies, practices and revenue.

Three California Human Tissue Firms Targeted by House Committee

A Republican-dominated Congressional committee today zeroed in on three California human tissue firms entangled in the national flap over abortion and the Planned Parenthood Association.

All three were sent letters today seeking to determine whether the companies were in compliance with laws dealing with the distribution of fetal material.  They were given a deadline of Aug. 21 to provide a briefing to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Questions include procedures involving informed consent from donors, fees for fetal tissue, the amount of revenue from fetal tissues in 2014 along with policies and practices for handling fetal tissue.

StemExpress of Placerville, east of Sacramento, and its president Cate Dyer, received one of the letters. The stem cell and tissue firm has been much in the news about the controversy. The flap was triggered by Internet videos with Planned Parenthood officials that were taped surreptitiously by anti-abortion activists using false identities and false company credentials.

Both the federal and California departments of justice are investigating whether the anti-abortion activists violated the law when they made the undercover videos. 

The other two letters went to Linda Tracy, president of Advanced Bioscience Resources, Inc., of Alameda, and Ben Van Handel, executive director of Novogenix Laboratories, LLC, of Los Angeles. (See the letter to Advanced here, the letter to Novogenix here.)

The letters to StemExpress and the Advanced Bioscience referred to a July 27, New York Times article that included them. The House committee letter quoted from the piece.

The article by Denise Grady and Nicolaus St. Fleur said, 

"(F)etal tissue is a uniquely rich source of the stem cells that give rise to tissues and organs, and that studying how they develop can provide clues about how to grow replacements for parts of the body that have failed.

“'Think of fetal tissue as a kind of instruction booklet,' said Sheldon Miller, the scientific director of the intramural research program at the National Eye Institute.

"Stem cells derived from adult tissue may eventually replace fetal ones, researchers say, but the science is not there yet."

All three companies were told by the House committee,

“Under the NIH Revitalization Act of 1993, it is "unlawful for any person to knowingly acquire, receive, or otherwise transfer any human fetal tissue for valuable consideration if the
transfer affects interstate commerce." While this provision prohibits the sale or purchase of fetal
tissue itself, the term "valuable consideration" does not include reasonable payments associated
with the transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control, or storage of
human fetal tissue. As the committee with legislative jurisdiction over the NIH Revitalization
Act of 1993, we have an oversight responsibility and interest in determining whether there is
adequate compliance with the law, and/or whether the law is adequately meeting ethical and
moral concerns." 

A Reuters story said that none of the companies has responded to a request for comment.

Text of Court Documents in the StemExpress-Daleiden Case

Coming up on Aug. 19 in Los Angeles will be the next court hearing on the temporary restraining order obtained by StemExpress against David Daleiden. (See here for a related story.)

Here is the text of the July 2015 request by StemExpress for the order.

  StemExpress Filing for Restraining Order Against David Dalaiden by DavidJensen

Here is the actual text of order that was granted.

   Temporary Restraining Order Obtained by StemExpress Against David Daleiden by DavidJensen

California Stem Cell Firm Fighting Anti-abortion Onslaught

Protest this week at StemExpress headquarters -- Channel 10 image

Highlights: 

Controversy threatens to embroil stem cell research 

Trump jumps in 

Strangulation threat

Loss of business

A small stem cell/tissue firm in California’s Gold Rush country is battling hard as it fears “irreparable damage” from a wave of vitriol and harmful publicity about its business.

The firm is StemExpress, LLC, of Placerville, which has become entangled in a national, abortion ruckus that could escalate and spill over more broadly into stem cell research across the country.  

David Daleiden
CMP photo

In fact, the key anti-abortion player behind the controversy, David Daleiden, said he received the inspiration for his campaign when he attended a stem cell conference some years ago.

The latest flap started three weeks ago and shows no signs of abating. Daleiden and his backers have targeted Planned Parenthood, which Daleiden says is “trafficking (in) and selling baby parts for profit.” StemExpress, which supplies stem cells and human tissue to researchers, surfaced in the secretly made videos as a client of Planned Parenthood.

The controversy has entered the 2016 presidential race, triggered Congressional investigations, generated a major story out of the U.S. Senate yesterday and could play a role in a possible government shutdown come October.

The company says it will pursue “all available legal remedies” against Daleiden and his Sacramento-based Center for Medical Progress (CMP). On July 28, StemExpress was granted a temporary restraining order against release of further videos. It said in its court filing that “irreparable damage” could result, including violence against the firm and its executives. (See here for the full text of the filings.)

A story later in the San Francisco Chronicle said,  

Cate Dyer -- StemExpress photo

“After the videos were released, an anonymous Internet post disclosed the address of StemExpress’ chief executive (Cate Dyer) and said the executive should be strangled with piano wire….”

StemExpress said that release of more videos “will draw StemExpress and Dyer deeper into the vortex of public animosity stirred up by CMP’s crusade to brand everyone associated with Planned Parenthood as evil criminals, which will not only have (and already has had) a detrimental impact on StemExpress’s business reputation and relationships, but more importantly, it presents a real threat of danger to Dyer’s personal safety.”

StemExpress has lost at least one customer, Colorado State University. But more of the firm's wide-ranging clients are likely to be rethinking their connection because of the controversy.

StemExpress said in a court filing that its customers include nearly every major medical research institution in the country, major pharmaceutical companies, medical schools, overseas firms and federal agencies.

Headlines involving StemExpress have rattled around cyberspace for the last few weeks. A search this afternoon of  Google News using the term “stemexpress” turned up 61,400 results. They included such headlines as:

“Bombshell: Investigators says StemExpress bought intact dead babies from Planned Parenthood.”

“Gruesome video reveals how a lab technician was recruited to draw blood; next thing she knew she was handling the limbs of an aborted baby”

Yesterday, the company was the target of a protest at its headquarters by demonstrators who told it to “get Stem out of Hangtown,” the Gold Rush name for Placerville.

In the company's court filings,  it said that Daileden used a fake named (Robert Sarkis) and pretended to work for a fake company, BioMax Procurement Services, in order to meet privately with Planned Parenthood officials.

The company said the recordings were “a clear violation of California’s Invasion of Privacy Act, which criminalizes the non-consensual recording of confidential communications.”

The company noted that the U.S. Department of Justice and the California attorney general, Kamala Harris, have both launched criminal investigations into the matter.  

Yesterday the company released a statement that said,

“Ninety percent of our work is with adult, healthy, living donors and 100% of our samples are collected according to the highest ethical standards and in strict adherence to the law.  StemExpress has never requested nor received an intact fetus.

"StemExpress performs extensive work to test, isolate and purify the donated cells so that researchers can use them to help find cures and treatments for life’s significant medical conditions. It is for this work that we are paid.

"We would all benefit from a dialogue about how rare and important human materials are collected, how stem cell research works and the incredible power of regenerative medicine to improve the quality of life of so many people stricken with disease."

Bits and pieces have surfaced on the Internet about Daileden from a variety of sources. He grew up in Davis, about 57 miles west of StemExpress' headquarters.  

Patti Armstrong of the National Catholic Register reported on July 22, 

“It was while majoring in government at Claremont McKenna College in California that Daleiden received his first hint that the abortion industry was selling parts from aborted babies.

“I was working as a research assistant and attended a stem-cell conference as part of my job,” he said. “The presenter mentioned using cells from an aborted baby for research. That got my attention. I thought, ‘Wait a minute — what?’” 

Armstrong reported that Daleiden was prepped for his undercover work by Theresa Deisher, who holds a Ph.D. from Stanford and is "president of Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute and CEO of AVM Biotechnology; both (Seattle) companies have a mission to end the use of aborted babies in biomedical research."

No. 2 Exec at Salk Institute Leaving, Move Follows Retirement of President

Another top executive at the Salk Institute is leaving under circumstances that indicate that the move is not entirely voluntary, the San Diego Union-Tribune is reporting.

Left to right, Irwin Jacobs, chair of Salk
 board; William Brody, president; Marsha
Chandler, executive vice president
Salk photo

She is Marsha Chandler, who was executive vice president and chief operating officer of the La Jolla, Ca., enterprise and who also once served as a director of the $3 billion California stem cell agency.

Gary Robbins reported her departure effective Aug. 31, saying that Salk released a statement that “suggests that Chandler's exit was not voluntary.”

The statement said:

"In order to provide the future Salk president with the greatest flexibility to determine the institute’s ideal executive management structure going forward, the executive committee of the board of trustees and the institute’s leadership have decided to restructure the executive team. Therefore, with respect to this decision, Marsha Chandler will be leaving…”

William Brody, president of Salk, announced last week that he would be leaving at the end of the year.

Robbins wrote,

“Chandler, 70, helped Brody to roughly triple the institute's endowment to $370 million and to help recruit a greater mix of scientists at the Salk, whose basic research has led to drugs to treat cancer, and improved treatments in diabetes, inflammation and obesity.”

Chandler served on the stem cell agency board from 2007 to 2009. She was replaced on the board by Brody, who left the position in 2012. Since then Salk has had no representative on the 29-member panel. Nearly all of the institutions that receive awards from the agency have representatives on the agency board.

'Best of Times, Worst of Times' -- A Tale for Stem Cell Fans

Highlights:

Sinking stock prices vs. $40 billion market

Profits drive therapies

Test for the California stem cell agency

During the past week, followers of the stem cell world have been treated to sharply contrasting perspectives on the likely success of therapies involving regenerative medicine.

One perspective was bleak; the other robustly optimistic.

One borrowed slightly from the “Tale of Two Cities,” with a headline that said “Tale of seven stem cell stock woes….”

The other carried a headline that said “global stem cell market predicted to reach $40 billion in five years….”

One was a story about hard-eyed investors backing away from stem cell research. The other was about a bright, near-term future for the field.

Don Gibbons, chief communications officer at California’s stem cell agency, wrote about that bright global market on his agency’s blog. He said that the $40 billion figure was generated by the worldwide consulting firm Frost and Sullivan, which was promoting its study of the field. The 2014 report is going for as much as $7,500, a price tag that helps illustrate one of the features of the stem cell field: It needs a lot of cash.

Indeed, Gibbons noted that Frost and Sullivan cautioned that funding for early stage, clinical stem cell work is not abundant.

Which brings us to Paul Knoepfler’s tale of stem cell stock “woe.” He is a stem cell researcher and blogger at UC Davis, which has benefited mightily from cash from the $3 billion California stem cell agency.

He wrote,

“Lately, stem cell companies have not been doing so well financially to put it mildly and their stock prices have generally been going down, down, and down further. A lower stock price and market capitalization are not just a headache for investors and bad for the companies, but they also strongly interfere with the progress of the clinical science.”

And he asked,

“To be blunt, why are their stocks doing so miserably?”

Knoepfler did not really attempt to answer that question. However, it is clear that stem cell stock prices are down because nobody wants to buy them. The reason? Investors do not expect to make money any time soon by purchasing shares in those firms, which struggle perennially to raise cash.

That is a financial reality that the $3 billion California stem cell agency needs to fully integrate into its plans for spending its last $800 million, which is slated to run out in less than five years.

The agency’s goal is to produce a stem cell therapy as promised to California voters 11 years ago when they approved creation of the agency, which will cost the state about $6 billion, including interest, before the effort expires.

Without backing of industry, there will be no therapies. But the priorities of a business are not necessarily the same as the agency’s. Profits necessarily come first with a business. Otherwise it will vanish into a financial abyss. Witness the dumping of the nation’s first hESC clinical trial by Geron, in which the agency invested $24 million only three months before the trial was summarily terminated by the company for financial reasons. 

The California stem cell agency’s president, Randy Mills, should understand the vagaries of all this better than most. He made his career as a biotech business executive, not as a researcher. Over the last year, he has done much to sharpen the focus of the agency and begin to create a clear path for emergence of a therapy, a “radical” change he has dubbed CIRM 2.0.

Whether he can successfully put together the needs of business and the needs of science and medicine is perhaps the key question for the California stem cell agency between now and 2020. 

California's Salk Institute Looking for New CEO

San Diego is a hotbed of biomedical research, so when one of the leaders of its top institutions leaves, it is significant news.

William Brody, Salk photo

William Brody, head of the Salk Institute and a former director of the California stem cell agency, will be retiring at the end of the year, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported yesterday.

Brody, 71, came to Salk in 2009 and has wrapped up a $300 million fundraising effort that has stabilized the nonprofit after a period of financial uncertainty, Gary Robbins reported in the newspaper’s story.

Robbins wrote,

"'Salk has always had a much smaller endowment than other comparable institutions, but with decline in funding for biomedical research we needed a buffer and that is what Bill achieved,' said Terry Sejnowski, a Salk neuroscientist. 'None of his predecessors were able to do this. We don't have wealthy alumni or grateful patients, just the best basic science.'

"But if you compare where we are today with Scripps (Research) and medical schools around the country that are bleeding faculty and debt we are solvent if not plush, and continue to recruit the best young faculty. Looking to the future we need to find another Bill Brody."

Brody served on the governing board of the $3 billion state stem cell agency from August 2009 to the end of 2012. His predecessor at Salk, Richard Murphy, also served on the board and as interim president of the agency. Salk has not had a representative on the board since Brody left. 

Salk had received $52 million from the agency, which ranks the institute 12th on the list of recipients of awards. When Brody left the agency board in late 2011, Salk had chalked up $37 million in stem cell agency awards.

Salk officials said they will launch a nationwide search for a replacement. Scripps Research, also located nearby in the San Diego suburb of La Jolla, is also looking for a new CEO with top notch fundraising abilities. 

California Stem Cell Agency Ends Today's Session

OAKLAND, Ca. -- Today's meeting of the governing board of the California stem cell agency has concluded. We will have more on its proceedings during the next few days. Here is a link to the agency's press release on the meeting. It identifies the other recipient of an award ($8.5 million) made today as Mehrdad Abedi of UC Davis. Donald Kohn of UCLA received the other award ($7.4 million). 

Concerning the changes in the basic research and translation award programs, the press release said,,

"By scheduling both the Discovery and Translational awards more regularly CIRM is creating a system that helps move the most promising projects along a pipeline and also provides predictability to the grant system, making it easier for researchers to know when they can apply for funding.

"The stem cell agency estimates that each year there will be up to 50 Discovery awards worth a total of $53 million; 12 Translation awards worth a total of $40 million; and 12 clinical awards worth around $100 million."

Parkinson's Patients Dismayed by Slow Work at California Stem Cell Agency

OAKLAND, Ca. -- Directors of the California stem cell agency today unanimously approved $40 million for a program to advance or "translate" basic research during a session that was marked by emotional pleas from Parkinson's Disease patients for much faster action.

The contingent from the San Diego area told directors and agency officials they were not moving fast enough to fund a research effort that they supported.

One patient advocate, Jenifer Raub of San Diego, said it was "outrageous" that the effort could not even be considered by reviewers until next March with no funding until about 2017.  Another unidentified patient said,

"Don't let policy, bureacracy and procedures stop this for another year."

Agency officials said that the time is required to meet legal requirements for the competitive grant process and reviews of the proposals that would be submitted.

Individuals appearing at the meeting were largely associated with Summit4StemCell of San Diego and have raised to $2 million to back research by Jeanne Loring, head of the stem cell program at Scripps Research in La Jolla.  The comments appeared spontaneous in reaction to the CIRM staff presentation on the new program. Loring told the California Stem Cell Report she did not organize the comments.

The agency's new, four-round, translation research program promises cash to researchers within nine months of submission. The program says that applications will be accepted in September and March of each year. Asked about the timetable, Mills told the California Stem Cell Report that it will begin in 2016.

Mills later told the board that the agency needed to be responsive to patient needs. He said he would "see if there is anything we can do." He said he would report back to the board on the matter.

(The last paragraph in this item was added about one hour after its initial posting.)

California Stem Cell Agency Approves $53 Million for Basic Research

OAKLAND, Ca. -- Directors of the California stem cell agency this morning approved a $53 million "discovery" research program that is aimed at funding basic research and creating special incentives to help assure that it will lead to a widely used therapy.

Randy Mills, president of CIRM, said a new, $150,000 bonus award will be created as part of the program. He also said recipients will be newly required to explain how their proposal could lead to a therapy, among other things.

Mills told directors that the new requirements would help to prevent past situations in which only 5 percent of basic research awards advanced along a path towards development.

Directors voted unanimously to go forward with the effort following a discussion that focused mainly on technical details of the plan. (See here and here for additional information on the plan.)

UCLA's Kohn Wins $7.4 Million Stem Cell Research Award

OAKLAND, Ca. -- Donald Kohn of UCLA is the recipient of a $7.4 million award from the California stem cell agency to develop a therapy to treat a rare genetic condition called chronic granulomatous disease.

Kohn's proposal was approved unanimously by the directors of the $3 billion agency meeting here this morning. The agency did not identify Kohn as the recipient. However, it was learned shortly after the approval that the Los Angeles investigator had made the application.

See here for more information on his proposal.

$16 Million in Two Grants Approved by California Stem Cell Agency

OAKLAND, Ca. -- Directors of the California stem cell agency today approved $16 million for two clinical trials involving AIDS lymphoma and another involving a rare genetic affliction that creates immune deficiencies problems.

Names of the recipients were not immediately disclosed. See this item for more information on the awards.

$100 Million for Clinical Stage Stem Cell Research in California

OAKLAND, Ca. -- Directors of the California stem cell agency today approved $100 million for clinical stage research for the 2015-16 fiscal year. The funds were allocated on a unanimous vote with no discussion.

The effort extends the CIRM 2.0 program, which began in January of this year. The agency awarded $25 million during the first half of this year out of a $50 million budget.

Oakland Gains HQ of the California Stem Cell Agency

OAKLAND, Ca. -- The California stem cell agency will be moving to new headquarters this fall in Oakland, across San Francisco Bay from its current home near the San Francisco Giants ballpark.

The address of the new headquaters is 1990 Harrison Street in downtown Oakland. Details of the cost and the square footage were not immediately available.

California Stem Cell Agency: 'Lots of Money and Lots of Time"

OAKLAND, Ca. -- The California stem cell agency today said it has committed $1.97 billion during its nearly 11 years of life and anticipates spending about $170 million to $190 million over the next five years.

Agency President Randy Mills presented the figures at a meeting of the agency's board of directors. 

He said he anticipates a "net commitment" of $170 million annually over the next five years.

He said,

 "We have lots of money and lots of time."

California Stem Cell Meeting Begins in Oakland

Directors of the California stem cell agency today began their meeting here at 9:11 a.m. PDT with a report from Chairman Jonathan Thomas.

Looking for Clarity at the $3 Billion California Stem Cell Agency

OAKLAND, Ca. -- Scientists and others seeking the short version of the plans for funding of basic and translational research by the $3 billion California stem cell agency should look no further than an 18-page Power Point presentation.

The explanation is available on the agency’s Web site and in some ways is better than the more prolix description offered in three formal memos. While the presentation offers a fast read, seriously interested parties will need to plow through all three documents. (See here, here and here.)

Critical to understand the direction of the agency, however, is another Power Point presentation -- this one by Randy Mills and which is not supported by a memo or other formal document. But some of what Mills lays out in the slides has been brought up at earlier meetings, the voluminous transcripts of which are available on the agency’s Web site, if you can find them.

A search of the agency’s Web site late yesterday using the term “transcript” turned up 879 results. No transcripts of remarks by Mills or of meetings of the agency’s board of directors were found in the first 14 pages of the results.

In his slides today, Mills is covering his thinking on both basic and translational funding and how therapy development should have a continuous and predictable pathway. He likes to talk about it in terms of rail lines, a homely but apt analogy.   

While we are on the subject of Power Point presentations, the agency’s slides have improved greatly since Mills became president of the agency in May 2014.  Nonetheless, Power Point presentations do not necessarily enhance understanding, especially when the presenters do little more than read the notes on the slides. The result is known as “Death by PowerPoint!”

Slides are no replacement for a single, nuanced, written explanation of a proposal, including charts, something more than the agency usually offers in its memos to the board. That said, their memos have also improved and are more comprehensive and straight forward than under the regime of the agency’s former president, Alan Trounson.

Coming Up: Full Coverage of California Stem Cell Meeting Today

The California Stem Cell Report will be on the scene today in Oakland as the Golden State's $3 billion stem cell agency is set to allocate $243 million for a wide variety of research efforts plus a high school training program. News reports will be filed as warranted throughout the day.

The public can participate in the meeting at its physical site in Oakland and at teleconference locations in Beverly Hills, San Diego, South San Francisco, Stanford, Sunnyvale and two in La Jolla. An Internet audiocast is also available. Details are available on the agenda for the meeting, which begins at 9 a.m. PDT.

NDA Appoints Ellen Feigal as Partner

Ellen Feigal, formerly the No. 2 person at the $3 billion California stem cell agency, yesterday was named as a partner in NDA Partners, an international consulting firm to the medical products industry.

Feigal resigned last fall as senior vice president at the stem cell agency, about five months after Randy Mills was named as its new president.

NDA's web site says it is a "a global strategy consulting firm specializing in expert product development and regulatory advice to medical products industries" and that it deals with "emerging biopharma." The web site does not disclose the names of its clients, and it is not known whether any are involved with the California stem cell agency.

Full Coverage of Tomorrow's Stem Cell Meeting

The California Stem Cell Report will provide gavel-to-gavel coverage tomorrow of the directors' meeting of the $3 billion California stem cell agency. Up for consideration are plans for spending $243 million, among other things.

The public can participate in the meeting at its physical location in Oakland and at teleconference locations in San Diego, South San Francisco, Stanford, Sunnyvale and two in La Jolla. An Internet audiocast is also available. Details are available on the agenda for the meeting, which begins at 9 a.m. PDT.

California Ready to Approve $243 Million for New Stem Cell Research

CIRM President Randy Mills uses a railroad analogy for therapy development

The California stem cell agency Thursday is set to approve $243 million to finance everything from testing therapies on patients to exposing high school students to research.

The multi-faceted effort will come before the 29 directors of the agency at their meeting on Thursday at the Oakland Marriot City Center. The initiatives have already cleared the directors’ Scientific Subcommittee.

The effort is the second installment in the CIRM 2.0 program begun earlier this year by the agency’s president Randy Mills. He assumed his post in May 2014 at the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine or CIRM, as the $3 billion agency is formally known.

Mills has described his changes as radical. He says they are aimed at improving the quality of applications and speeding development of therapies. He also has called for deeper involvement by the agency in the direction and work of researchers.

Mills, who has made his entire career in the biotech business, says he wants to provide a relatively smooth track, a “continuous, predictable pathway” from basic research to clinical applications. He uses a railroad analogy to illustrate the desired progression of research(see graphic above).

The $243 million up for approval this week is about 30 percent of the agency's remaining $800 million. However, the money will be spent over the next several years -- not just this year. Under Mills' spending projections, the agency will not run out of cash until 2020. 

The largest program coming before CIRM directors this week is $100 million during 2015-16 for more advanced research related to clinical development. Directors earlier approved $50 million for the effort for the first six months of this year. However, they have awarded only $25 million as of the end of June.

Another $53 million is set for a variety of mostly basic research, which Mills calls “discovery.” Requests for applications are scheduled to begin late this summer or fall. Some of the rounds will have application openings twice a year.  Cash is scheduled to flow to researchers within about 10 months of application.

Mills is also asking the board for substantial delegation of authority to him during the reviews and is calling for an “optimized review process” because of a high anticipated volume of applications in discovery.

Under the $40 million translation research round, Mills would also be delegated authority in the grant review process to pluck out applications and advance them even if reviewers disagreed. Applications will be accepted in September and March. Cash will flow to researchers about nine months after applications are submitted.

Both the discovery and translation rounds are open to both businesses and nonprofit enterprises.

A revised training program called “Bridges 2.0” for college level students is budgeted for $46 million over a five-year period. A training program for high school students, changed and rebranded as “Spark,” will receive $4 million over five years. Applications for that program are due Oct. 1. It is open to colleges, universities and non-profit academic institutions. 

Applications for the Bridges program are also due Oct. 1. They will be limited to “California public universities or colleges or private, nonprofit academic institutions, which did not receive a CIRM-funded Major Facility or Shared Research Laboratory Award (and, hence, do not have a major stem cell research program or a critical mass of stem cell researchers).”

In addition to the Oakland location of the directors' meeting, the public can participate at teleconference locations in San Diego, South San Francisco, Stanford and two in La Jolla. Addresses can be found on the agenda, which includes directions for listening to the Internet audiocast of the meeting.

Email comments for the CIRM directors on items on the agenda may be sent to mbonneville@cirm.ca.gov.

California to Hand Out $16 Million for Stem Cell Research This Week

The California stem cell agency this Thursday is scheduled to give away nearly $16 million for clinical trials for possible therapies connected to AIDs and a rare genetic affliction involving immune deficiencies.

The larger of the two awards -- $8.5 million -- will go to an unidentified recipient for an early stage trial involving AIDS-lymphoma patients.

The agency’s blue-ribbon reviewers earlier voted 10-0 behind closed doors to approve the application. On Thursday, the full board of the agency will ratify the vote in public. The board has almost never overturned a decision by reviewers to fund an award.

The summary of the review of the application, which was not disclosed, said that the proposed therapy “would be a significant improvement over standard of care in the proposed AIDS lymphoma patient population. 

“With the proposed patient population (AIDS lymphoma patients), impact will be somewhat limited. However, demonstration of success in this limited context would serve as an impetus to solve additional problems such as non-ablative conditioning to achieve engraftment in the larger HIV patient population.” 

Despite another “paucity of patients,” the stem cell agency is also expected to approve $7.4 million for an early stage trial involving X-linked chronic granulomatous disease.

Reviewers voted 5-1-4 to approve the application. The voting translates to five for the application, one indicating it needs improvement and four indicating that it is “sufficiently flawed that it does not warrant funding, and the same project should not be resubmitted for review.” 

The review summary said,

“Reviewers were…divided as to the feasibility. Some reviewers did not think that there are sufficient patients afflicted with this disease who also meet the enrollment criteria to allow for completion of the trial with enough patients to yield meaningful outcomes. Other reviewers were optimistic that, given the track record of this team and the willingness of patients with intractable orphan diseases to participate clinical trials, the trial could be fully enrolled and yield results to potentially support moving the therapeutic toward approval by the FDA and/or advance the field.” 

The target of the potential therapy is an inherited condition that weakens the immune system. According to the Rare Disease Network, it occurs in only one out of every 250,000 persons. Only 20 new cases a year are reported in the United States, according to Wikipedia. The review summary used the expression “paucity of patients.”

Reviewers said, however, the approach has “potential value in a number of other diseases.”

The application carried with it $4.6 million in co-funding promised in a publicly unspecified form via the applicant.

Both the applications had been reworked and resubmitted to the agency under its new CIRM 2.0 award process. However, this week is the first time the board has considered them.

(Please note that the agency has cobbled together the review summaries for both applications. That means that some readers seeking the summary related to the $8.5 million award could be misled when the immune deficiency award turns up at the top of the document. The full application is also never disclosed by the agency, only the summary.) 

Rejected by reviewers was a $2.9 million application from another unidentified group. The vote was 2-6-3, meaning that the proposal can be reworked and resubmitted.

The board’s meeting will be in Oakland at the Marriott City Center. Public teleconference locations will be in San Diego, Stanford, South San Francisco and two in La Jolla. The public, including scientists, can participate from those locations as well as in Oakland.

An audiocast is also available. Full details can be found on the agenda.