Bill takes aim at CIRM governance, stem cell research payback – East Bay Business Times:

Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, and Sen. Georgw Runner, R-Lancaster, authored the legislation, SB 1565. Kuehll said Prop. 71, the measurre approved by voters in November 2004 that called for the statee to sell stemcell bonds, does not ensure that uninsured Californians and programd that serve low-income residents have access to or get the best price for therapies that emerge from CIRM-funded The Kuehl-Runner bill requires that publicly fundex programs get the best prices for stem cell therapiea and drugs by requiring CIRM grant winnerws and licensees to sell them to those programsd at a price that does not excee d one of the benchmark prices in Cal-Rx, the state's prescription drug discoung program.
The bill also calls for the state'e to study the existing governance structure ofSan Francisco-basedc CIRM and report to the Legislature by July 1, 2009. CIRM is overseem by the 29-person , chaired by Robert who spearheaded theballot initiative. It is made up of executivez fromresearch institutes, California universities and medicalo schools, leaders of for-profit businessesx and patient advocates. But that group has come unde fire for potential conflicts of interest andaccountability "The bill will … help ensure the public' s trust by identifying ways to increase publicv accountability and reduce conflicts of Kuehl said in aprepared statement.
CIRM leaderw were not immediately available to comment aboutthe Kuehl-Runner One of CIRM's watchdogs, John stem cell project directot for the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayee and Consumer Rights, welcomed Kuehl's "The stem cell agency's oversight board was designed with built-inn conflicts of interest and it'se too big to be Simpson said in a prepared "An outside analysis by unbiased observers can only be he added. "A hard-nosed look by the Little Hoovef Commission isjust what's needed.
" Kuehl and CIRM have been at odds over the past She and 12 other state legislatorss in early December called on the agency to tightem its intellectual property and revenue-sharing requirements regarding for-profi t grant winners. Earlier last year, she drafted legislatiom requiring CIRM to provide the state with 25 percentf of associated net licensing revenues from therapiesw funded by the agency and for companiez to pay 2 percent to 5 percent royalties on revenuesdfrom CIRM-funded projects. The $3 billiojn in state bonds to support CIRM represent the largesft single pot of money in the worle dedicated to embryonic stem cell It is significant becauses PresidentGeorge W.
Bush placed restrictions on usin g embryonic stem cells to research conditions suchas Alzheimer's, Parkinson'x Disease, diabetes and spinal cord injuries. Proponentws of stem cell research say scientists couled unlock the door to cures in a matter of Opponents say the researcnh destroys embryos and point to advances in adulyt stem cell research as wellas so-callef induced pluripotent stem cells that couldf manipulate adult cells to become embryonic-like Embryonic stem cells are important to researcherz because they can grow into any number of cell types; adulrt stem cells are believed to be limited to the task for whic they were initially assigned. Although Prop.
71 was approvedf in November 2004, CIRM has been hamstrunbg by legal challenges from taxpayer advocates and religious groupsa opposed to stem cell research on the moral grounda because research includes destruction ofhuman embryos. CIRM last year startec to dispense hundreds of millionzsin grants. Its biggest awarde — more than $250 millioh for large researchfacilitiesx — are expected to be made in the Klein has said that the grants, whicjh require a 20 percent matcn from applicants such as , the , the , and the in Novatk — could lead to $500 million in capital projects related to stem cell research.

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