Stem-cell institute has money, will fund research
BOARD MEMBERS, ADVISERS TO DISCLOSE ANY TIES TO STEM-CELL WORK
line By Steve Johnson---Aug. 02, 2006
San Jose Mercury News
Running with the $150 million loan it just got from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the board overseeing California's $3 billion stem-cell institute said Wednesday it will begin soliciting its first research proposals within weeks.
The board also passed a policy to guard against bias in awarding the grants, by requiring the institute's advisory boards to disclose ties to companies or universities doing stem-cell work.
Armed with Schwarzenegger's loan, the institute plans to begin awarding grants as soon as February, a move that elicited cheers from several of the agency's board members Wednesday at their meeting.
``We now are in business,'' said Sherry Lansing, a board members and former chair of Paramount Pictures, at the institute's board meeting. ``I can't help but be excited.''
The board plans to award 70 grants totaling $151.5 million, all of it allocated for studying human embryonic stem cells, which are derived from embryos and can grow into any type of tissue.
The institute was created by California voters in 2004 primarily to conduct that kind of research, after President Bush limited federal financing in that area. But lawsuits have held up the institute's $3 billion funding for more than a year.
The idea of imposing conflict-of-interest rules on the board's advisers has been controversial. Consumer advocates and others say the advisers should not have ties to those seeking the institute's grants to insure the agency's decisions are unbiased.
But some institute officials have been reluctant to impose such limitations, fearing the advisers might be discouraged from helping the agency.
Under the rules adopted Wednesday, the experts must disclose their investments and avoid offering recommendations about businesses, universities or others with which they have a financial, personal or professional relationship.
That's similar to a policy already in place for the institute's board. But while members of the public can review the disclosures made by the board, they won't be able to see the information submitted by the advisers.
David Magnus, who directs Stanford's Center for Biomedical Ethics, said it's not essential for the experts to be held to the same rules as the institute's board, because the experts only advise, while the board makes the final grant decisions. Moreover, Magnus said he has been generally impressed by institute's effort to avoid conflicts of interest.
Some consumer advocates aren't satisfied.
``It amounts to self-regulating,'' said Jesse Reynolds of the Center for Genetics and Society in Oakland.
State Sen. Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, backed a constitutional amendment last year that would have required the board members to divest their investments in stem-cell companies. But Ortiz later dropped the requirement.
Contact Steve Johnson at sjohnson@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5043.
