Editorial: Stem cell funding is venture capital
By San Francisco Examiner,
San Francisco Examiner
| 08. 30. 2005
Last year's predictions of the benefits California would derive from approving Proposition 71 and funding stem cell research were overly optimistic, a recent study proclaimed.
The report, funded by universities and a biomedical trade association, concluded that while the state would benefit from new jobs, tax revenues and improvements to public health, requiring companies to pay for their use of research funding would stifle the participation of businesses.
In a sense, those using the report to oppose measures now under consideration in the state Legislature to codify how California will benefit from stem cell research are saying they want to consider billions of dollars in taxpayers' money not as a loan for investment purposes _ venture capital _ but instead as an outright gift.
Including interest, state taxpayers will likely end up paying $6 billion or more to repay the $3 billion in bonds.
The stem cell institute is scheduled to disburse its first grants soon, so let's be clear: Prop. 71's $3 billion in public money was not meant to be a gift. It was meant to be an...
Related Articles
By Rob Stein, NPR | 09.30.2025
Scientists have created human eggs containing genes from adult skin cells, a step that someday could help women who are infertile or gay couples have babies with their own genes but would also raise difficult ethical, social and legal issues...
By Aleks Krotoski, The Guardian | 09.28.2025
Imagine you’re the leader of one of the most powerful nations in the world. You have everything you could want at your disposal: power, influence, money. But, the problem is, your time at the top is fleeting. I’m not...
By Gregory Laub and Hannah Glaser, MedPage Today | 08.07.2025
In this MedPage Today interview, Leigh Turner, PhD, a professor of health policy and bioethics at the University of California Irvine, unpacks the growing influence of stem cell clinics and the blurred line between medicine and marketing. He explains how...
By Gina Kolata, The New York Times | 06.20.2025
A single infusion of a stem cell-based treatment may have cured 10 out of 12 people with the most severe form of type 1 diabetes. One year later, these 10 patients no longer need insulin. The other two patients need...