Early returns on voting on Proposition 14, the $5.5 billion California stem cell measure, are mixed and too preliminary to make firm conclusions about its fate. The counties listed are the five most populous in the state. Polls closed at 8 p.m. PDT.
These early returns do not necessarily indicate the final result, which may not be known for days, depending on how close the margin is.
Voting on Proposition 14
Early returns on voting on Proposition 14, the $5.5 billion California stem cell measure, showed that the measure was running ahead with the state's voter. The counties listed are the five most populous in the state. Polls closed at 8 p.m. PDT.
These early returns do not necessarily indicate the final result, which may not be known for days, depending on how close the margin is.
The California Stem Cell Report will carry results tonight on Proposition 14, the $5.5 billion stem cell research ballot initiative, beginning shortly after 8 p.m. PDT.
The mainstream media will be focused on other races that will go unmentioned here. The California Stem Cell Report, however, will be digging into the returns most of the evening and will bring Proposition 14 results to you right here on this site both tonight and again tomorrow morning.
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| The Lagenhop family in Los Angeles for a clinical trial to treat their children for a fatal affliction Harrison Hill/USA Today photo |
USA Today has published a lengthy piece involving initial, favorable results from a more than $12 million clinical trial backed by the California stem cell agency and involving a rare disease that usually ends the lives of children before they reach kindergarten age.
The article comes on the eve of the final day for voting on a ballot initiative, Proposition 14, to save the agency from financial extinction by giving it $5.5 billion more. Officially known as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicince (CIRM), the 16-year-old agency is running out of its original $3 billion and is scheduled to begin closing its doors this winter without a boost from the initiative.
The research involves three children from Ohio who are being treated at UCLA in a trial being conducted by Donald Kohn, who has performed other genetic therapy procedures for rare diseases. For the work, CIRM awarded Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a publicly traded, New York-based firm, $6.6 million in May 2019. The firm provided co-funding of $5.6 million. (Here is a link to the summary of the review of the application, CLIN2-11480.)
Over the years, CIRM has supported Kohn's work with $52 million, not including the Rocket funding.
The USA Today article by Karen Weintraub began with the case of the family of Alicia and Jon Langenhop of Canton, Ohio. The piece delved into the history of the California stem cell program, but did not mention the agency or its official name. Proposition 14 was mentioned twice, once in the headline.
USA Today is a national newspaper. Circulation figures for California are not available, although it reports national, weekly circulation of 726,906. Today's story, which would resonate with many voters, was tucked away in its health section.
The affliction involved is Leukocyte Adhesion Deficiency-I (LAD-I.
"Patients with severe LAD-I can develop life-threatening infections because their white blood cells are unable to leave the bloodstream to fight them. Without a successful bone marrow transplant, severe LAD-I is most frequently fatal during the first 2 years of life," the Rocket web site said."George Daley, a stem cell biologist who is dean of Harvard Medical School, said he's envious of the California researchers who have access to this pot of money.
"'California has always been a very exciting place to pursue science, but prior to (the taxpayer funding), it wasn't exactly the place that was the first on the tip of your tongue as a powerhouse community for stem cell science,' he said. 'But there's no way that today it wouldn't be listed in the top three.'"
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Read all about California's stem cell agency, including Proposition 14, in David Jensen's new book. Download it from Amazon: California's Great Stem Cell Experiment: Inside a $3 Billion Search for Stem Cell Cures. Click here for more information on the author.
“We see regrowth of hair cells in the mouse balance organs — and the balance function appears to improve, according to how many hair cells come back.”Writing on online on IVN was Alysia Vaccaro, who said,
"In 2012, when my daughter Evangelina, “Evie,” was just six weeks old, she was diagnosed with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). More commonly known as “bubble baby” disease, the rare genetic disorder left her at risk of death from any infection, even a diaper rash or the common cold. Born alongside a healthy twin, we were told Evie would likely not make it to her second birthday.
"However, thanks to Proposition 71 in 2004, California voter’s initial investment in stem cell research and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, a groundbreaking treatment was discovered at the University of California Los Angeles that saved my daughter’s life and 49 other babies born with the same rare disease – giving them all functioning immune systems and a second chance to live a long, healthy life."
"A yes vote on Proposition 14 is crucial to continue the pace of medical research and our state’s journey to save lives. For millions of Californians who live with a chronic disease or condition, and who need new therapies, this may be their last hope.....There is a glaring funding gap between early lab work and late-stage clinical trials — known as “The Valley of Death” — that often ends promising stem cell research."
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Read all about California's stem cell agency, including Proposition 14, in David Jensen's new book. Download it from Amazon: California's Great Stem Cell Experiment: Inside a $3 Billion Search for Stem Cell Cures. Click here for more information on the author.
"That’s a ton of money for a little-noticed agency that provides a questionable state service. But many of the research projects have been very worthwhile."
"If we don’t continue the state funding, lots of facilities would have to close their doors,” says Kendall Klingler, the Proposition 14 spokeswoman....
"'We have more than 90 stem cell trials underway,' she says.
"The agency does have a record of some success: funding research that has led to treatments approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for blood and bone marrow cancers, for example."
The FDA treatments mentioned are not stem cell treatments, which is what was promised by the 2004 campaign. The agency has not funded any research that has resulted in a stem cell therapy that is available to the general public.
And it is simply not accurate to say that "lots" of stem cell facilities partially financed with CIRM cash will be closing. All of them are occupied and fully in use. The recipients of the facilities grants, such as Stanford and UC San Francisco, are exceedingly unlikely to close the buildings.
Skelton concluded that CIRM has "failed to live up to its original hype." He said,
"It was aloof to Sacramento, and not subject to oversight by the Legislature and governor. There’s been a lack of transparency.
"There was also an odor of interest conflicts among agency board members who seemed to steer grants toward their own institutions, even though they recused themselves from voting."
"It's not clear that the Yes on 14 campaign's $15 million, even with a campaign that features actor Seth Rogen as “Stemmy the Stem Cell," will get the job done.
"'We’re running against Covid-19. That’s our real opposition,” said Robert Klein, the wealthy real estate investor and attorney who authored both measures and is the main funder of Prop. 14, along with Dagmar Dolby, the widow of inventor and sound engineer Ray Dolby.
"The differences between 2004 and 2020 are stark.
"Back then, Klein and other proponents had a ready-made argument by pointing to President W. Bush's prohibition on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, a stance supported by the religious right. In the nation's biotech capital — with an electorate dominated by Democrats and independent voters that support abortion rights — stem-cell backers made the case that California needed to step in to keep research alive.
"Many of the promises made 16 years ago, including its projections in royalties and state revenues from new treatments, have not borne out. Funding from the agency has supported more than 60 clinical trials, but CIRM has yet to fund a single stem-cell therapy approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for widespread use."
"With wildfires burning and Covid-19 spreading, can California afford stem cell research? Voters are set to decide"McFarling's story was one of the more detailed that have appeared so far either nationally or within California.
"John Matsusaka, an economist who heads the Initiative and Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California. He said federal funding restrictions that fueled support of Proposition 71 are no longer a major concern, proponents have not done a great job demonstrating that voters got their money’s worth from the first $3 billion, and the measure is coming to voters during tough fiscal times."
"'The people who decide who is going to get funded are the people who get funded. That’s a built-in conflict of interest they made no attempt to fix,' said John Simpson, who monitored CIRM for many years as stem cell project director for the group Consumer Watchdog. 'They need to go back to the drawing board and fix these structural flaws.'"
"Some of the conflicts have been so flagrant as to be almost comical. For example, former CIRM President Alan Trounson once asked prominent biochemist Leroy Hood to be a reviewer of a grant by Irv Weissman, the director of Stanford’s Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, after the three men spent time fly fishing together on a Montana ranch jointly owned by Weissman and Hood."
"Proposition 14 could have addressed these defects. Instead, it made them worse: It enlarges the board to 35 members, still mostly drawn from representatives of the universities, companies, and research institutes that receive its grants."
"The 2004 proposition campaign has been widely criticized for hype: over-promising the imminence and certainty of breakthroughs. The advocates called their operation 'Cures for California,' but these have been in short supply. They also said that stem cell research would enormously reduce California’s medical costs, but there’s no sign of that.
"The campaign for Proposition. 14 follows the same pattern. It claims that the new multibillion-dollar investment has 'massive savings potential' and a 'low impact' on the budget. Skepticism is definitely in order."
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Read all about California's stem cell agency, including Proposition 14, in David Jensen's new book. Download it from Amazon: California's Great Stem Cell Experiment: Inside a $3 Billion Search for Stem Cell Cures. Click here for more information on the author.
