Watchdog suggests stem cell policies for state

A taxpayer watchdog group is expected to release a report today outlining how leaders of the state's $3 billion stem cell initiative could develop policies to make stem-cell-based therapies affordable and accessible to Californians.

Leaders of the initiative known as Proposition 71 "must put the interests of taxpayers and patients ahead of private biotech companies who have (a) financial stake in the outcome," the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights said in its report.

For example, a portion of the money the state raises by licensing scientific discoveries made with Proposition 71 funds should be used to make new therapies available to people who can't afford them, the foundation report states.

Biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies that develop therapies using science that results from Proposition 71 should be required to sell those therapies to California at their lowest price, the report states.

It also recommends that the institute reserve the right to keep a Proposition 71-funded discovery from being patented if it is determined that it would do more good by remaining in the public domain.

In addition, it suggests that...