Monday, January 23, 2006

Confirmed: $40 Million Raised for CIRM

The California stem cell agency has raised nearly $40 million, an amount that will allow funding of the first year of its training grants and more.

The California Stem Cell Report has confirmed a story first published in the San Francisco Examiner last week. Reporter Marisa Lagos said that stem cell chairman Robert Klein disclosed the general amount in a little-noticed speech in the Bay Area.

We have been told the money has been raised through bond anticipation notes, which Klein has called a type of bridge loan. They are sold at higher rates of interest than conventional state bonds. They are intended to be repaid only if the state wins the lawsuit challenging the existence of the stem cell agency. If it loses, the bond purchasers receive nothing.

Klein's plan was to sell the notes to charitable organizations – the theory being that they could just consider them gifts if the state loses the lawsuit.

One of the purchasers of $5 million in notes is Herb and Marian Sanders, co-chairs of the Golden West Financial Corp. of Oakland, the parent of World Savings Bank.

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