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Sacramento Bee: Stem Cell Agency Falling Short on IOM Recommendations

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It's exceedingly rare when the
California stem cell agency makes the front page of any newspaper.

So it is worthy of note that The
Sacramento Bee this morning carried a lengthy piece on its page one
about the agency and its response to the blue-ribbon Institute of
Medicine (IOM) report.
The headline said,

 “Analyst: Stem
cell agency reforms fall short.”

The analyst is the Institute of
Medicine, more specifically Harold Shapiro, chairman of the panel that
studied California's $3 billion research effort for 17 months at
a cost of $700,000 to the agency.
Bee reporter Cynthia Craft wrote that
Shapiro said the stem cell agency is “falling short” in its
response to the IOM recommendation.
Craft wrote,

"'There certainly is a gap between
what we recommended and what they responded with,' said Shapiro,
president emeritus at Princeton
University. ' I wish they had moved closer to our
recommendations.'"

Craft said the IOM made sweeping recommendations “emphasizing the need for new blood on a governing
board that has been plagued by the appearance of conflicts of
interest, cronyism and sluggishness in getting stem-cell products to
market.”
Craft also interviewed Jonathan
Thomas, chairman of the stem cell agency, who said some of the IOM
recommendations would take legislative action. But Thomas said that
was “out of the question.”
Craft wrote,

“The process would take years, he
said. The first opportunity to get on the ballot, for instance, would
be in the fall of 2014.”

The agency will run out of cash for new
grants in less than four years.
Craft's story was the first major news
article in years about the agency in the Bee, the only daily
newspaper in the state's capital. She reviewed a bit of the history
of the agency and concerns about conflicts of interest. She
concluded,

“Shapiro said he stands firmly behind
his committee's report. 

"'I think our recommendations sit
together and interrelate to each other well – and should have been
moved along as quickly as possible,' Shapiro said. 

"'It might have been helpful if
they indicated to us what they were willing to do and what they
weren't,' he said."

Source:
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  1. Stem Cell Therapy
  2. Sacramento Bee: Stem Cell Agency