California received its first royalty check on $3 billion in bonds sold to support stem cell research. Now, debate is kicking up on whether a $190,346 check is enough of a return on investment to get voters’ OK for billions more to fund the state stem cell agency, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).
The payment from City of Hope, a Los Angeles County-based research center, comes as supporters of CIRM gear up for a 2020 voter initiative to fund another series of billion-dollar bond sales. The current authority to sell bonds ends in 2019.
Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York also are among the states publicly funding stem cell research, though none to the extent of California in issuing billions of dollars in bonds.
In the aggregate, CIRM has awarded $2.48 billion to fund stem cell research, including infrastructure such as lab construction at Stanford University and University of California campuses, since voters approved Proposition 71 creating the agency in 2004.
California Proposition 71 was on the November 2, 2004 general election ballot in California as an initiated constitutional amendment. Voters approved it. The measure has been codified as Article XXXV of the California Constitution and is also known as the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative.
The City of Hope’s Beckman Research Institute paid the state $190,346 according to a CIRM royalty formula when the agency awarded the institute $5.125 million to develop stem cell therapies for glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. The payment was announced Feb. 12.
The 2012 City of Hope award led to two clinical trials and a number of offshoot inventions subsequently licensed to a Mustang Bio, a subsidiary of Fortress Biotech Inc., CIRM spokesman Kevin McCormack said in a blog post.
But, as the original funding based upon Proposition 71 is about to run out, the promoters of CIRM are out with a new scheme to get another $5 billion from California taxpayers. The initial $3 billion in bonds were estimated to cost the state $5.5 billion to $6 billion in interest and principal over their 30-year life.
CIRM battled lawsuits over Prop. 71’s validity that hindered California’s ability to sell bonds and defended against complaints about built-in conflicts for the initiative requiring disease advocates and researchers sit on the governing board.