Does California Have a Plan to Sustain its Multibillion-Dollar Search for Revolutionary Stem Cell and Gene Therapies?
Answer: Sort of
California’s $12 billion stem cell and gene therapy program holds a unique position in state government. It is the only state agency with a slow-moving financial guillotine hanging over it.
The question is: Does the agency have a plan to slip out from under the blade? The answer: Not really -- but with a caveat.
An escape-the-guillotine plan is stashed away and gathering cyberspace dust in an electronic corner of the website of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), as the agency is formally known.
The plan is ancient in terms of CIRM years. It was written more than half-a-CIRM lifetime ago. CIRM is 19 years old, and the plan is 11 years old. Even a search on the CIRM website couldn’t find it. (See below.)
On the surface, CIRM would seem to be wallowing in cash — $4 billion for
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