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California Stem Cell Agency Blogs on Geron Clinical Trial

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November 25th, 2012 8:01 am


The California stem cell agency
published an article online last week concerning the hESC clinical
trial that Geron abandoned last year, dealing mainly with one of the
participants in the program.

The piece was studiously non-committal
about whether the $3 billion research program is likely to fund the
trial once again, should BioTime, Inc., of Alameda, Ca., be
successful in acquiring the assets of once was the first hESC
clinical trial in the United States. The agency loaned Geron $25
million a few months before the company cancelled the trial.
Amy Adams, CIRM's communications
manager, simply wrote,

“They (BioTime) would need to apply
for a loan if they want CIRM to financially support the continued
trial.”

The latest round of funding that
BioTime could apply for has a deadline of Dec. 18 for letters of
intent. In addition to a loan, a grant is also a possibility.
Adams focused on Katie Sharify, who was
enrolled in the clinical trial shortly before Geron said it was
dropping the effort for financial reasons. Adams interviewed Sharify
before an audience of scientists.
Adams wrote,

“Katie told me that it would be
impossible not to hope that a trial would help her, but that by the
time she made the decision to participate she knew she was doing it
to further science, not necessarily to further her own recovery. She
told the audience, 'I was part of something that was bigger than me,
and bigger than all of you.'”

Stem cell scientist Paul Knoepfler of
UC Davis also wrote about the BioTime-Geron deal last week. Noting
that Geron's decision a year ago left many “upset to put it
mildly,” Knoepfler said the “idea of BioTime buying the Geron
stem cell program is a great one that provides new hope on many
levels.”

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/uqpFc/~3/VlS7kYH6oy4/california-stem-cell-agency-blogs-on.html

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