Friday, February 10, 2006

Research and IP Policies Clear Oversight Committee

The California stem cell agency today approved far-reaching policies to regulate stem cell research and ensure that the state sees a return on its $6 billion investment.

Only minor changes were made to the draft regulations before they cleared CIRM's Oversight Committee. Robert Klein, chairman of the agency, said they went "above and beyond" national standards. While the proposed rules are likely to establish new bench marks across the country, critics were not entirely mollified.

We will carry more on Friday's events during the weekend. Immediately after the session(which ran from 8:30 a.m. to about 5 p.m.), I was pressed into work as a construction grunt by daughter, Karen, a building industry veteran who is running her own home remodel project (addition of a second story and more). I only began reviewing notes from the CIRM meeting at 10 p.m.

Karen, who prefers to be described as a "harsh taskperson" rather than as an "active taskmaster," has directed me to report to work at 6 a.m. Saturday, so full reports out of the Oversight Committee meeting will have to wait until later Saturday and Sunday.

We will tell you about plans to offer up naming rights to CIRM programs to grant donors who hit the $10 million level. We will tell you about a flap about CIRM's long overdue strategic plan. We will give you an update on the fundraising efforts at CIRM, report on a UK-CIRM stem cell conference, examine news coverage of Friday's meeting and more. Plus the latest from Sen. Deborah Ortiz, who has re-introduced her bill to regulate egg donations, and her criticism of CIRM egg policies.

CIRM has issued a press release on Friday's meeting but it is not on its website as the time of this writing and probably will not be posted website until Monday, so the full text is below.

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