Category Archives: Stem Cell Therapy

Just a few days ago, the California Stem Cell Report carried an item about the state's stem cell agency and its supporters' mantra that the agency has a mandate from voters albeit one that is seven years old.

We mentioned that Robert Klein, the former chairman of the agency and head of the 2004 ballot campaign that launched CIRM, is one of those fond of citing voter mandates with great regularity.

Indeed, Klein found shelter again this week under a voter mandate, but this time it was a moral one.

Klein popped up in a San Jose Mercury story about the status of the stem cell agency. Writer Steve Johnson said that Klein declared that he quit as chairman last June in part because he wants to raise money for a campaign for another multibillion bond measure for CIRM. Johnson quoted Klein as saying,

"It would be a huge failing in meeting our moral mandate" to let CIRM die. "We can't afford to break the momentum."

As we noted on Dec. 6, mandates come and go, as another multibillion California bond program, high speed rail, has discovered.

Source:
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In an overview of the $3 billion California stem cell agency, the San Jose Mercury News says that CIRM "still has no treatments on the market and is at a critical juncture that could determine how much longer it stays in operation. "

The story is the second significant piece about CIRM this week in a major California newspaper, which has not received much coverage in the mainstream media in the state in the last year or so. The Los Angeles Times earlier this week carried a column that raised questions about the "Geron fiasco" involving CIRM and the conduct of the agency's business.

The San Jose article yesterday by Steve Johnson said that voters "may not be as enthusiastic" about providing several billion dollars more to finance the agency as they were when they created it seven years ago.

The newspaper, located in the heart of California's Silicon Valley, quoted John Simpson, stem cell project director of Consumer Watchdog of Santa Monica, Ca., as saying,

"I think it's crazy. The state's economy is in a far different position now. We're not even able to provide adequate funding for education."

Johnson also reported that former CIRM Chairman Robert Klein, who led the 2004 Prop. 71 campaign, is raising or intends to raise funds for another bond issue, perhaps in 2014. The agency will run out of cash in about 2017, according to its projections.

The article noted that CIRM has awarded only $83.4 million to 15 businesses, which are the key to pushing research into the clinic,  out of the $1.3 billion it has handed out. Johnson wrote,

"Many businesses have been deterred from even trying to make stem-cell treatments because of how long it might take.

"'It's a challenge,' said Rodney Young, chief financial officer at Newark-based StemCells, which hopes early next year to obtain a $20 million institute grant to determine if a type of adult stem cell can slow the loss of cognitive function in Alzheimer's patients. 'It's an expensive, uncertain and long process.'"

Johnson additionally noted that CIRM has received criticism for the high salaries it pays its top executives and for conflicts of interests.

Source:
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Directors of the California stem cell agency today approved a $30 million program that could generate "disease-in-a-dish models" that "have the potential to make drug discovery faster, more efficient and more personalized to individual patients."

The "human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) initiative" is aimed at generating high quality stem cell-based tools for use by the researchers and drug developers.

The proposal includes four elements, one of which is a $300,000 collaboration with the NIH to develop cell lines from patients with Huntington’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. The plan includes a $4 million disease line award round, a $16 million core hiPSC derivation round and a $10 million stem cell bank round. The RFAs would go out in May of next year with funding expected early in 2013.

The initial staff memo on the initiative did not mention human embryonic stem cells, but a spokeswoman for the agency said they were not excluded from the effort.

Source:
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Directors of the California stem cell agency today approved a $30 million program that could generate "disease-in-a-dish models" that "have the potential to make drug discovery faster, more efficient and more personalized to individual patients."

The "human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) initiative" is aimed at generating high quality stem cell-based tools for use by the researchers and drug developers.

The proposal includes four elements, one of which is a $300,000 collaboration with the NIH to develop cell lines from patients with Huntington’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. The plan includes a $4 million disease line award round, a $16 million core hiPSC derivation round and a $10 million stem cell bank round. The RFAs would go out in May of next year with funding expected early in 2013.

The initial staff memo on the initiative did not mention human embryonic stem cells, but a spokeswoman for the agency said they were not excluded from the effort.

Source:
http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Efforts to speed development of stem cell therapies received a $27 million boost today from directors of the $3 billion California stem cell agency.

They approved two initiatives that grew out of recommendations from a blue-ribbon panel that CIRM organized last year to review its operations.

One element in the plan is a $12 million "bridging fund" that would apply only to current CIRM-funded projects in three areas: disease team grants, some early translational projects and clinical development projects. The bridging fund would provide up to $3 million for up to one year for each recipient.

As originally proposed by CIRM staff, CIRM President Alan Trounson would have been authorized to approve each project. However, the board altered that process to require board approval with "peer review input."

Director Shlomo Melmed, a senior vice president at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, argued that leaving the decision to Trounson and staff could place Trounson in an "untenable" position and lead to second-guessing. Melmed and others also said that process could open the agency to public criticism.

Trounson and other staff members said that biotech firms often need speedier action than can be provided by a more extended process. Director Jonathan Shestack, a Hollywood producer, agreed, but he was the lone vote to oppose removing the authority from Trounson.

No biotech companies spoke out at the meeting concerning the proposal (see here for an earlier version of the plan).

The second part of the response to the review panel's finding is a $15 million "external innovation initiative" to support collaborative efforts of CIRM grantees to work with teams that CIRM said are "making extraordinary progress outside California."

The $15 million program would provide awards as often as two times a year. The maximum amount on each award was not specified. The program was approved on a unanimous voice vote.

Ellen Feigal, CIRM's vice president of research and development, said in a memo to directors that examples of potential projects included collaborative efforts with the NIH and work with the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and its disease-focused programs. CIRM is planning to spend $300,000 over two years in work with the NIH.

Some of the latest CIRM initiatives are open to biotech businesses. Others are open only to non-profit or academic researchers.

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The California stem cell agency said the audiocast today of its directors meeting in Los Angeles is down but that the service provider is working to restore service.

As of this writing, the broadcast has been interrupted for nearly one hour. We will resume coverage if the audiocast is restored.

A footnote on the vagaries of the Internet: Here in Panama the government provides free WiFi to many areas. However, it also limits what can be seen or read. For example, YouTube is banned, also Internet broadcasts of college football games by CBS. If you look up odds on football games, those sites are barred as well. Certain information from cellular phone companies that compete with the firm that is financially backed by the government also cannot be accessed. And this morning, the government's WiFi network blocked the audiocast of the CIRM board meeting.  We picked it up after we found a private WiFi network about an hour after the meeting started.

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