Next Up in New Priorities for Billions in CIRM Spending: Manufacturing and Disruption?

Public hearing next week, businesses and public can comment

CIRM graphic

Should California “disrupt the traditional (cell and gene therapy) ecosystem” and back efforts with billions of dollars to push the field well beyond a boutique research status.

It is a question that arose indirectly yesterday in an article in the journal Science by Stanford researcher Matthew Porteus and Rayne Rouce of the Baylor College of Medicine. Their piece came as the $12 billion California Institute of Medicine  (CIRM) will consider next Wednesday new priorities for spending its final $3.9 billion.

CIRM is nearly 20 years old but has yet to finance a stem cell or gene therapy that is available to the general public, which California voters expected when they created the agency via a ballot initiative.

Rouce and Porteus wrote, “Innovative cell and gene therapies (CGTs), built on decades of research, are changing the lives of those who suffer from conditions ranging from cancer to sickle cell disease to neurologic diseases. Although hailed for their promise and recognized for benefits that will exceed the costs, the high prices of CGTs ($300 thousand to $4 million per dose) leave these therapies out of reach for many. 

“This accessibility problem will only be solved if academia, industry, investors, funders, regulators, and advocacy groups work together to put CGT breakthroughs in the hands of all who stand to benefit,” they said.

California is unique in the nation in terms of dealing with affordability. Voters mandated