Editorial: Stem cell property

Who will profit from stem cell investment?

Cast your mind back to September 2004. Hollywood actors, Nobel laureates and patient advocates were urging voters to approve a $3 billion bond package for stem cell research. To counter concerns that a cash-strapped state couldn't afford to loan $3 billion ($6 billion with interest), proponents commissioned a study to buttress their claim that Proposition 71 would produce an economic windfall.
The study, conducted by a Stanford University professor and a consulting firm, the Analysis Group Inc., concluded that Proposition 71 would save billions of dollars in health care costs and provide the state with $537 million to $1.1 billion in direct royalties from new stem cell therapies. Two months later, nearly 60 percent of voters approved the initiative.

Now return to the present. Legislators and public interest groups, excited about the potential of stem cell research, are insisting on licensing agreements that will ensure that California gets its promised benefits, either through royalties or discounted therapies. This is reasonable. Californians should expect something from a $3 billion investment that likely will make...