ACT and CIRM Together on Eye Research Webinar

Executives of Advanced Cell Technology,
which has been repeatedly rejected for funding by the $3 billion
California stem cell agency, will participate this week in the agency's Internet "webinar" on research involving the human eye.

ACT, which is engaged in the only hESC
clinical trial in the nation, was held up earlier this month (see
here and here) at an Institute of Medicine hearing as a prime example
of the California's agency's failure to fund the stem cell industry
in any significant way.

Nonetheless, three ACT execs are scheduled to be online for the CIRM session on Wednesday: Gary Rabin, the CEO of
ACT; Matthew Vincent, director of business development, and Edmund
Mickunas, vice president of regulatory affairs. The webinar will deal with regulatory issues
with the FDA and clinical trials involving the eye.

Also on the panel are Samuel Barone,
medical officer with the FDA, and Mark Humayun, professor of
opthamology at USC, who is the PI on a $16 million macular
degeneration grant from CIRM.

So what is the significance of ACT's
participation in the CIRM event? If the relationship between ACT and
CIRM has been touchy, this sort of cooperation is probably a good
sign for both. For one, CIRM could have hardly staged the webinar
without ACT, given the subject matter. But if the agency did not
want to engage ACT, it could have simply done nothing about setting
up a webinar in which the firm would participate.

Does this mean that ACT is going to
receive a handsome grant or loan from CIRM? CIRM has established
procedures (RFAs, peer review, etc.) for approval of funding, and ACT
would have to go through that process unless CIRM does something very
unusual.

Wednesday's event is aimed at researchers and
is likely to be technical. Persons interested in taking part must
register in advance.