Stem cell research conflict bill moves a step closer to ballot

A measure to strengthen conflict-of-interest rules on Proposition 71-funded stem cell research cleared a second legislative hurdle Wednesday, even as critics warned it would scare off scientists.

The bill, SCA13, co-authored by Sens. Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, and George Runner, R-Lancaster, passed the Senate committee on elections on a 5-0 vote. It is due to be considered next in the Senate Appropriations Committee on Monday.

The legislation would require the agency set up by Proposition 71, the measure voters approved in the fall to provide $3 billion toward stem cell research, to follow standards recently applied to the National Institutes of Health.

Those rules forbid employees from holding biotech or pharmaceutical stocks. SCA13 would extend the regulations to the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the agency overseeing the research, and its advisory groups.

To become law, the constitutional amendment must receive a two-thirds majority from both houses of the Legislature and be passed by the state's voters.