Modest Approval from Long-time Stem Cell Agency Critic

Posted: April 14, 2013 at 3:13 am

Of all California's newspapers, The
Sacramento Bee, the only daily paper in the state capital, has long
been the most critical – editorially – of the Golden State's $3
billion stem cell research agency.

Today, however, the newspaper gave a
modest nod of approval to the agency's modest efforts to clean up its
built-in conflicts of interest, which have been cited as a major flaw
by the prestigious Institute of Medicine.
The headline on the Bee's editorial today said,

“Stem cell agency finally addresses
potential for conflicts”

The piece said that Jonathan Thomas,
chairman of the agency, “has taken important steps in
reducing the potential for conflicts within this agency.”
The editorial continued,

 “He hasn't
gone as far as we would like, or that independent outside reviewers
have recommended....But he's achieved what's possible, at least for
now, and the board may empower him to go further.”

The Bee referred to action last month
in which the agency's governing board decided, among other things,
that 13 of the 15 board members linked to recipient institutions
could not vote on any grants, although they could participate in
discussion of applications. Twenty-nine persons sit on the board. In
a $700,000 report commissioned by the agency, the Institute of
Medicine recommended a fully independent board.
The Sacramento newspaper said, 

“We
think Thomas and the oversight board should go further and adopt the
Institute of Medicine recommendations. But that is politically
unlikely. As is now obvious, it will be up to the Legislature to
fully remove representatives of funding-eligible institutions from
being involved in decisions about grants that could come back to
them.

“Thomas, to his credit, recognizes
that his compromise may not be the perfect solution. He wants to test
out the new policy for a year, and see how it works. There's a lot
riding on the outcome. CIRM is expected to run out of funds in 2017,
and while philanthropy and foundation money could extend that for a
few years, supporters of California stem cell research clearly want
to go back to the ballot to seek additional funding. To make that
case, CIRM supporters can't afford any more scandals about insider
dealing. The next year will reveal whether it is on the right track.”

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/uqpFc/~3/NowG2d8N5CM/modest-approval-from-long-time-stem.html

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