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$20 Million in Stem Cell Irony

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August 5th, 2012 3:50 pm


A bit of irony popped up this
week in the wake of approval of $151 million in awards by the
California stem cell agency.

One of the awards was $20 million to
StemCells, Inc., of Newark, Ca., which is also fighting hard for
another $20 million from the state research enterprise.
However, back in 2008, Kenneth
Stratton, general counsel for the firm, put some distance between his
company and the agency, which is handing out $3 billion in toto.
Stratton said,

"We will take CIRM money last. We
don't want to be in a position where, years from now, we are actually
forced to sell [our products] in California at a loss."

But last week, Martin McGlynn, CEO of
StemCells, said in a press release,

“We are extremely grateful to CIRM
for its support.”

Times have changed for both the company
and CIRM, which is in the process of altering the intellectual
property rules that offended Stratton in 2008. The changes were due
to be approved last Thursday, but action was put off by the CIRM
board. It was overwhelmed as it dealt with the record pace of appeals
by researchers who were scrambling to overturn negative decisions by
grant reviewers.
StemCells' application for another $20
million is one of those being appealed. The board will take it up
again in either September or late October, after it undergoes
additional scrutiny by the agency.
CIRM is touting its IP changes as being
more friendly to business. They also can be made retroactive to cover
awards to business made in the past. CIRM directors expect to meet by
telephone, probably in August, to approve the new IP rules.

Source:
http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

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