California - Panel wants state to waive stem cell product royalties

[Coastie for Truth]

Panel wants state to waive stem cell product royalties
Experts say profit interest may discourage private investment

Bernadette Tansey, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

A panel of university and business experts said Tuesday that California should waive its right to a share of royalties on the stem cell research the state will fund under a $3 billion program passed by voter initiative last year.

Although Proposition 71 allows the state to gain a partial interest in the intellectual property that results from the state-funded research, a committee of the California Council on Science and Technology said the state's financial stake could hinder progress toward stem cell-based therapies. Cutting into potential profits might discourage private investors from putting up the additional funds needed to develop lab discoveries into marketable products, the committee concluded.

The panel's report, though not binding on the institute controlling the stem cell research money, raised protests from taxpayer advocates and state Sen. Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, one of the Legislature's strongest advocates for a flow of research benefits back to the state.

Ortiz said the proposed policy would violate both the language of Prop. 71 and the promises made to voters who passed it in November. Proponents of the initiative maintained that the $6 billion needed to issue bonds to support the research would generate more than that amount from a combination of royalties, increased biomedical business activity, and disease therapies that would lower state health care costs.

Ortiz, who chairs the subcommittee overseeing the stem cell project, said her fellow legislators are unlikely to support wholesale adoption of the proposed policy. "They take very seriously their obligation to make sure California gets a return on its investment,'' she said.

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Just another delay - it's too late for this Diabetic - already have diabetic complications.