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Category Archives: Stem Cells

Trounson Proposes $70 Million, Fast-Track Stem Cell Clinic Plan for California

Alan Trounson, president of the
California stem cell agency, this summer plans to seek $70 million
for creation of what he calls Alpha Clinics, high-powered
organizations that will fast-track stem cell therapies to patients.
The proposal is scheduled to come
before CIRM board at its meeting in late July and would consume a
significant slice of the $700 million to $800 million that the $3
billion agency has left to hand out.
Trounson broached the need for the
clinics as far back as two years ago, but did not put a price tag on
the concept until an interview published online late today in the Los
Angeles Times. The interview will be carried in the print edition of
the paper tomorrow.
In the Q&A session between Times
columnist Patt Morrison and Trounson, he said, 

"I'm intending to set up a network of
stem cell clinics in California in the next couple of years, to make
treatments available as clinical trials or as registered treatments
for patients. I'm going to ask the [CIRM] board for about $70 million
to get that set up. It will make California a go-to place for stem
cell therapies. I want to make sure it's part of our medical fabric."

In other media reports in previous
years, Trounson has said the Alpha Clinics would speed delivery of
stem cell-based therapies and reduce costs of clinical trials by
building on the success of specialist cancer, transplant and in-vitro
fertilization clinics.
Leigh Dayton wrote about Trounson's
plan in The Australian last July 14. Dayton said,

“Initially the clinics would use the
capacities and infrastructure in the most advanced university medical
clinics to deliver bone-marrow stem cell therapies. As research
evolves, so will the treatments and services offered.”

Trounson also discussed the Alpha
Clinics during an appearance at USC in 2011. A university publication wrote,

"These clinics will initially serve
to get patients into clinical trials or to offer sound advice to
individuals who might otherwise go overseas to receive harmful stem
cell therapies from disreputable clinics.

"'I’m willing to invest money to
get these [clinics] up,' Trounson said. 'I think if nothing happens
beyond 2017 and we don’t get any refunding, we can leave a
footprint of stem cell clinics in California that will go on
forever.'"

Trounson was not at last week's CIRM
board meeting, but Ellen Feigal, senior vice president for research
and development, said a white paper is being prepared on Alpha
Clinics. She said a concept proposal would be brought to the board
July 25 at a meeting in the San Francisco Bay Area. Once the board
approves the concept, the staff will then prepare and post the RFA.

Interested parties can address
suggestions or questions to Feigal at info@cirm.ca.gov.

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/uqpFc/~3/lND8J7NKqzc/trounson-proposes-70-million-fast-track.html

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Sacramento Bee: Ongoing Conflict Problems No Help for Future Funding of Stem Cell Agency

The Sacramento Bee says conflict of
interest problems continue to trouble the California stem cell agency
despite its assertions that it has “turned a page” on the issues.
In an editorial Saturday, The Bee said
that CIRM Chairman Jonathan Thomas “has vowed to be aggressive in
avoiding conflicts in dispersing millions of public dollars for stem
cell research. Yet serious conflicts continue to be
revealed involving CIRM.”
The Bee cited articles on the
California Stem Cell Report earlier this month about a $21,630 gift
by its former chairman, Robert Klein, and the employment by Klein of
Vice Chairman Art Torres. The Bee said the situation “throws
into question a $20 million grant awarded last year to StemCells
Inc., a company that wants to transplant neural stem
cells to treat Alzheimer's
disease.” (See here, here and here)
The Bee also cited the case of Lee
Hood, an internationally renown scientist who violated the agency's conflict of interest policy. Hood failed to disclose to CIRM a
conflict involving an application that he was reviewing on behalf of
the agency. The Bee said the agency's failure to detect the conflict
was “serious oversight."
Eight readers commented on the
editorial and agency, generally unfavorably about CIRM.
But reader “bchild” said,

“It took a couple years for them to start funding projects and it may take years to see results. Wall
Street got 1.5 trillion and the promise of 10x that if they get
into trouble again, the scientists (and their business buds) just
want a couple billion...In the end who do you trust more with
public money? At least there is the appearance of public benefit
here..."

The Bee concluded,

“None of this helps CIRM's reputation
in being fair and impartial in spending $3 billion in public funds.
It surely won't help the institute's standing with the Legislature
and the public, should it need help staying in operation when its
funding is exhausted in a few years.”

The editorial was also carried by at least one other paper in the McClatchy chain.

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/uqpFc/~3/BZeSccFCbBU/sacramento-bee-ongoing-conflict.html

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California Stem Cell Agency: 5 Percent Budget Increase for Coming Fiscal Year

Directors of the California stem cell
agency today approved a $17.4 million operating budget for the fiscal
year beginning July 1, an increase of 5.1 percent over spending for
the current year.

As usual, the agency tries to portray
its budget as a decrease in spending. Directors were told that it
represented a 3 percent decline from the current year. However, the
comparison is not made to actual spending for this year. Instead, the
staff compares the 2013-14 budget to budget figures proposed last
May, which are now no more than time-worn ephemera.
Most of the budget goes for salaries
and benefits ($12.2 million ) with outside contracting running next
($2 million). (See here for details.) The budget projects 59 employees for next year
compared to 57 currently. CIRM staff said the number of employees is expected to remain about
the same until 2017 or so when its workload is projected to diminish.
The agency is expected to run out of
money for new grants in 2017, but it is working on a plan to develop
a combination of private and public funding to continue its work.
The spending plan reflects the cost of
overseeing about $1.8 billion in nearly 600 grants and loans plus
developing new research proposals that are likely to be funded in the
next few years. The operational budget is capped by law at 6 percent
of the amount of funds the agency distributes over its lifetime.  

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/uqpFc/~3/GJSQ_B3ck_8/california-stem-cell-agency-5-percent.html

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Multimillion Dollar Carrots for Stem Cell Research in California

Directors of the California stem cell
agency approved an $80 million business-friendly plan that will
dangle multimillion dollar carrots before biotech firms in an effort
to push therapies into the marketplace.

The upfront payment effort will allow
CIRM to take part in early stage clinical trials at no risk and could
generate a list of achievements that will be useful in creating
support for fresh funding after CIRM's money runs out in 2017.
The proposal is the first-ever from
CIRM that involves no upfront payments. Instead, recipients will have
to meet agreed-upon criteria to receive either grants or loans.
A CIRM staff document said,

“The major development milestone and
success criteria will be mutually agreed upon between CIRM and the
applicant at the beginning of the project(s) and at a minimum will
require completion of a clinical trial that shows some level of
biological activity/clinical efficacy and safety. The advantage to
CIRM of this...is that CIRM funds will only be applied to projects
that are successful.”

The proposal was wrapped into what the
agency calls its strategic partnership plan, which also has a more
conventional aspect, providing loans and grants in advance.
As part of the program, the CIRM board
also today approved a $6.4 million award to Sangamo BioSciences of
Richmond, Ca., to help develop a therapy for
beta-thalassemia. The firm will have to match the amount of the
award.

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/uqpFc/~3/uJidDBHhPdI/multimillion-dollar-carrots-for-stem.html

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Stem Cell Agency Approves $36 million to Recruit Six Scientists to California

The California stem cell agency today
awarded $36 million to six scientists to lure them to the Golden
State, in what was the agency's largest-ever recruiting round.

The awards more than doubled the amount
of CIRM has spent on recruitment. Until today, the agency had awarded
only $23.2 million for four awards.
Today's awards ranged from $7.5 million
to $4.8 million. The agency did not immediately identify the recipients. However, testimony at the meeting indicated that two of the institutions involved were UC San Francisco and the Gladstone Institute (the $7.5 million award) and UC Santa Cruz (a $5.4 million award). (The agency later released the list, which can be found here. Here is a link to the CIRM press release.)

The differences in the size of the awards had to do with the overhead charges that are levied by the institutions at which the scientists would work, CIRM staff said. The "direct costs" of the research for each grant was $4.5 million.

Six applications were considered in the
latest round, including one that was scored at 75 that was rejected by grant reviewers. However, CIRM staff recommended that application, which involved UC San Francisco and Gladstone, be funded. (See here and here.)
Previous winners of the recruitment awards were Robert Wechsler-Reya, Sanford-Burnham; Dennis Steindler,
The Parkinson's Institute; Andrew McMahon, USC, and Peter Coffey, UC
Santa Barbara.

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/uqpFc/~3/4jJo64qAjcY/stem-cell-agency-approves-36-million-to.html

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$36 Million Recruitment: Names of Researchers Being Lured to California

Here are the names of the researchers being recruited to California by the California stem cell agency with $36 million in awards. The sixth asked not to be revealed since he/she has yet to tell the current institution and are in
negotiations with their new institution

·      Hiromitsu
Nakauchi of the University of Tokyo, who would be moving to Stanford
University
·      Barry
R. Stripp of Duke moving to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
·      Richard
Gregory of Harvard and Children’s Hospital, Boston moving to UC
Santa Cruz
·      Eric
Ahrens of Carnegie Mellon moving to UC San Diego

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/uqpFc/~3/Kbc3TScH6ds/36-million-recruitment-names-of.html

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