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The California Stem Cell Report
How Does California's Stem Cell and Gene Therapy Agency Define SAF, and Why Is It Important?
CIRM's $3.9 Billion Priority Review

How Does California's Stem Cell and Gene Therapy Agency Define SAF, and Why Is It Important?

Think $3.9 billion and "finite resources."

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David Jensen
Oct 03, 2024
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The California Stem Cell Report
How Does California's Stem Cell and Gene Therapy Agency Define SAF, and Why Is It Important?
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Word cloud image from CIRM’s Sept. 26, 2024, official priorities summary

The folks in the South San Francisco headquarters of a $12 billion agency financed by roughly 20 million California “angel” investors call the agency’s latest product the SAF. That is a short way of saying, “Here’s how we are going to spend our last $3.9 billion.”

The enterprise involved is the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). Last week in San Diego, its 35-member board approved its new priorities — the SAF or “strategic allocation framework.” The hope is that new directions will create a bigger bang for the angel investors’ bucks.

The angel investors, by the way, are the California taxpayers who are financing CIRM by using the state’s credit card (state bonds) and borrowing money that has a substantial interest cost.

For those who are looking for a relatively brief, official summary of the SAF, CIRM produced a 13-page summary last week. For those who are looking for an even shorter version, see the word cloud at the top of this article.

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