California's Stem Cell/Gene Therapy Agency Nears Final Act on Priorities for Spending $3.9 Billion on Research

The criteria? Impact potential, patient reach, technological feasibility and prospects of regulatory approval

Last September, CIRM board member Mark Fischer-Colbrie kicked off the agency’s priority review with a number of questions and comments. The slide above captures some of them.

Key directors of the California stem cell and gene therapy agency are scheduled to hold what amounts to a dress rehearsal next week leading to final approval of sweeping, new priorities for the agency’s last $3.9 billion in research spending. 

What the agency does will affect researchers, patients and patient advocates, as well as possibly the fate of a number of cash-starved biomedical businesses.

The online meeting on Friday the 13th comes following 12 months of work by the agency staff and the 17 agency board members on its Neuro Disease Task Force and Science Subcommittee. The priorities review is the first since the agency, formally known as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), issued its initial strategic plan in 2006.