CIRM's Klein proposes $100B biomed program

Bob Klein describes his vision of how to increase biomedical funding to hasten discovery and commercialization of disease treatments. He spoke Thursday, Feb. 19, at the annual UCSD Moores Cancer Center symposium.

Bob Klein, the main backer of California's 2004 stem cell initiative has proposed a $100 billion international bond program in life sciences, to speed up research and clinical testing of disease therapies. The program would be focused on stem cells and genomics.

The United States and a few other countries would jump-start the program, and other countries would join, said Klein, a real estate investor, at last Thursday's UCSD Moores Cancer Center symposium.

Klein likened the participation to that already taking place in the stem cell cell program, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, created by the 2004 initiative, Proposition 71. CIRM has partnered with 14 other countries to co-fund international research projects. Foreign partners fund scientists in their own countries, while CIRM funds California-based scientists. Klein was CIRM's first chairman. Although he left the agency's governing board in 2011, he remains involved in advancing the agency's objectives.

This partnership leverages funding to create a much greater total impact, Klein said in an on-stage interview with Rep Scott Peters, D-San Diego. Peters, one of the post prominent supporters of federal biomedical funding in Congress, represents much of San Diego's biotech heartland of La Jolla and Sorrento Valley. Beside the financing issues, they also discussed ways to increase political support for biomedical research.

Klein, a real estate developer, drew from his knowledge of crafting bonds to describing how the program would work. The bond program would be seeded by a much smaller amount of seed funding through government-supported agencies, creating leverage.

"Just to give you (an idea) of the multiple effect of bringing critical funds upfront in the process, $100 million (a year) in bonds at the World Bank borrowing rate creates about $2.5 billion in bonds that are supported," Klein said. "At a time of scarce resources for Congress, if they would appropriate on a long term commitment to support international bonds, we could really leverage up to maybe a $100 billion program."

Under that program, each participating country would be allocated an amount of upfront financing to pay.

"Because the borrowing is so much cheaper than anything a country can do, from the surplus funds we raise, which are about 35 percent to 40 percent more than most countries can raise from the same amount of money, we can have an international pool, where we can collaborate and compete through peer review," Klein said.

Klein pointed to the International Finance Facility for Immunization as an international public-private partnership as a financial model. Using long-term government pledges as collateral, the agency can raise capital as needed from the bond markets.

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CIRM's Klein proposes $100B biomed program