External review of CIRM criticized as misguided

"The Great Beyond" blog at Nature presented some criticisms of the recent review of California's CIRM:

“You’ve got to remember, their whole mandate is commercialization,” says Bob Caldwell, CEO of Massachusetts-based stem cell company Advanced Cell Technology (ACT). What the agency should have done, he says, is identified 3-5 potential therapies that were “low-hanging fruit” in terms of clinical development. “Let’s get those through and into the clinic so that we can demonstrate to the world that the [human embryonic stem cell] platform has value,” he says.

Also, Caldwell notes, the agency should already have called for project proposals that tackle some technical areas that need work, such as techniques for the cryoprotection of cells, as well as methods to coax cells into dividing more rapidly. “These are commercial issues that can help these products move into the market,” he says.

ACT, which last week received a green light from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin the world’s second-ever clinical trial using human embryonic stem cells, had set up base in California for some time in the hope of receiving CIRM funding, but was never awarded a grant despite applying several times. While CIRM could well have had its reasons, Caldwell says, 95% of the funding was going to nonprofit institutions -– in his view a misguided strategy.

See also

The patent world of iPS (stem cells): Yamanaka, Bayer, and iZumi

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2010/03/response-to-francisco-prietos-vision.html

Comment to californiastemcellreport on Nov. 30:

From The Great Beyond Blog:

“You’ve got to remember, their whole mandate is commercialization,” says Bob Caldwell, CEO of Massachusetts-based stem cell company Advanced Cell Technology (ACT). What the agency should have done, he says, is identified 3-5 potential therapies that were “low-hanging fruit” in terms of clinical development. “Let’s get those through and into the clinic so that we can demonstrate to the world that the [human embryonic stem cell] platform has value,” he says.

Also, Caldwell notes, the agency should already have called for project proposals that tackle some technical areas that need work, such as techniques for the cryoprotection of cells, as well as methods to coax cells into dividing more rapidly. “These are commercial issues that can help these products move into the market,” he says.

From the IPBiz blog in 2005:

When taxpayers in California, Kansas, New Jersey, etc. find out they are getting no benefits out of their tax dollars, there might be a bit of disenchantment. Taxpayers do not want to be, unknowingly, venture capitalists.