CGS-authored
The California stem-cell oversight board, rife with conflicts of interest, could make matters much worse if drug companies are allowed to own new medical technologies. The Proposition 71 board is expected to decide soon who will ultimately control, and therefore benefit from, medical breakthroughs developed by the initiative's $3 billion in taxpayer-funded research.
At the request of the California Legislature, an industry-friendly group recommended that California stem-cell research abide by the intellectual-property standards of the federal Bayh-Dole Act. Among other provisions, that law allows institutes and universities to license inventions developed with taxpayer funds to private companies. The private companies in turn are allowed to keep the majority of royalties and profits.
Anyone who has purchased prescription drugs in the past two decades knows that these ``standards'' have failed to give Americans access to affordable medical breakthroughs. Taxpayers who have already paid for research and development provided by government grants are often required to pay huge prices at a doctor's office or pharmacy. For example, the rights to the blockbuster glaucoma drug Xalatan, developed with $4 million in taxpayer grants...
At the request of the California Legislature, an industry-friendly group recommended that California stem-cell research abide by the intellectual-property standards of the federal Bayh-Dole Act. Among other provisions, that law allows institutes and universities to license inventions developed with taxpayer funds to private companies. The private companies in turn are allowed to keep the majority of royalties and profits.
Anyone who has purchased prescription drugs in the past two decades knows that these ``standards'' have failed to give Americans access to affordable medical breakthroughs. Taxpayers who have already paid for research and development provided by government grants are often required to pay huge prices at a doctor's office or pharmacy. For example, the rights to the blockbuster glaucoma drug Xalatan, developed with $4 million in taxpayer grants...