Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights Supports Lee-Halpern Petition

Robert Klein
Chair
Independent Citizen's Oversight Committee

Mr. Klein,

The eyes of the world are on California. New medical treatments and funding strategies developed in the world's sixth leading economy will become national models. The success or failure of the California experiment could decide the fate of stem cell research for years to come.

We are writing to express our deep concern with the failure of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine ("CIRM") and Independent Citizen's Oversight Committee ("ICOC") to guarantee an open, democratic decision-making process and disregard of state conflict of interest laws. The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) calls on the CIRM and ICOC to support the petition filed by Philip R. Lee, MD, and Charles Halpern, JD.

When voters approved the unprecedented $3 billion in taxpayer-funded bonds to support stem cell research, they did so to provide access to innovative medical technologies for all Californians. However, the public availability of new medical technologies is threatened by a web of conflicts between those responsible for awarding research grants and the biotech and pharmaceutical companies who stand...