CIRM's Priorities and Spending: From the Impact of Past Research Investments to Prevalance of Diseases in California

State funding for gene and stem cell therapies to involve "patient reach" and likelihood of regulatory approval

California’s new Department of Health Care Access and Information offers the sort of interactive medical and demographic data that may come into play in CIRM’s priority review. The full interactive graphic of this map, which deals with stroke, can be found here.

Demographics, the prevalence of diseases in California and the impact of past CIRM research spending are all on the table as the state’s stem cell and gene therapy program reevaluates its priorities over the next five months. 

Those elements and more have emerged during crucial public meetings this month of the directors of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine(CIRM), which has only $1.5 billion that is uncommitted.

CIRM’s current annual research budget is set at $427 million. Voters have authorized $8.5 billion for the agency since 2004. 

That was the year that voters created the research program through a ballot initiative campaign that led voters to believe that revolutionary stem cell therapies were right around the corner. While CIRM has backed 103 clinical trials, it has not funded