Letter from CGS to members of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine's Independent Citizens Oversight Committee
By Marcy Darnovsky
| 02. 02. 2005
Dear Members of the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee:
The California public has given you the responsibility to oversee
an enormous undertaking of great potential: the largest state-funded
research program in U.S. history. The Center for Genetics and
Society supports the public funding of embryonic stem cell research
but is concerned that the new California Institute for Regenerative
Medicine (CIRM) is off to a stumbling start with regard to public
transparency and accountability. Although these are not due
to explicit decisions by your committee, you are in a position
to remedy them.
There are three particularly troubling areas of concern.
Conflict of interest regulations. This week the National
Institutes of Health - in many ways a federal analogy to your
own enterprise - announced that it is significantly strengthening
its regulations to curtail conflicts of interest. This highlights
a growing awareness that the conduct and oversight of biomedical
research requires strict protections. Yet the ICOC is failing
to make this a priority. Although it is mandated to adopt standards
"initially based" on those of the NIH for its employees
and...
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