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Stem Cell Directors Approve $151 Million to Commercialize Stem Cell Research

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Directors of the California stem cell
agency today approved $151 million in research awards aimed at
commercializing stem cell research and pushing therapies into
clinical treatment.


Patients and researchers cheered when the action was announced. 


The awards of up to $20 million each
were ratified by CIRM's governing board, which added two to the
six applications approved by reviewers. The original
six totalled $113 million. Directors budgeted $243 million
for today's round.


Five of the applications involving
appeals were sent back by the board for more review.
(See here, here and here.)
They will be considered again in early September or October.

The awards are the
second largest research round in CIRM's history,
surpassed only by an another, earlier $211 million “disease team”
round. The latest effort is aimed at bringing
proposed clinical trials to the FDA for approval or possibly starting
trials within four years. That deadline coincides roughly
with the date when CIRM is scheduled to run out of cash unless new
funding sources are developed.
CIRM is currently exploring seeking
private financing. It could also ask voters to approve another state
bond issue. (Bonds currently provide the only real source of cash for
CIRM.)  In either case, the agency needs strong, positive
results from its grantees to support a bid for continued funding.
Today's action came after nine out of
the 15  applicants who were rejected by reviewers appealed the
 negative decisions. Two of the appeals were successful at today's meeting. It is a
good bet that at least some of those referred for more review
will be ratified by the board in September. 
The appeals were based on a variety of
issues, ranging from technical science questions to inconsistencies
in CIRM's research approaches and mistakes by reviewers.
The outpouring
of appeals was the largest in CIRM history in terms of the
percentage of applicants seeking to overturn reviewer decisions.
The round also marked
another first in terms of the total initially approved by
reviewers. On occasion in the past, reviewers have not approved
enough awards to consume all the funds budgeted by the CIRM board.
But never before has the amount fallen so far short.
Most of the awards went to enterprises
connected to persons on 29-member CIRM governing board, continuing a
trend that has existed throughout CIRM's history. Board members with
conflicts, however, are not allowed to vote or participate in the
The full list of the winners and the
CIRM press release can be found here.

(Editor's note: This item was updated from an earlier version and the figures increased as the CIRM board added another grant and took additional action.)

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  1. Stem Cell Therapy
  2. Stem Cell Directors Approve $151