WIKIMEDIA, CSIROThe California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) announced its approval of an ambitious plan last week (December 17) that it will execute over the next five years, with the aim of getting more stem-cell therapies into the clinic or at least well on their way to commercialization.
The plan, which involves pushing more therapies into clinical trials at a quicker pace, will tap the remaining funds from the $3 billion California voters awarded the agency in 2004 by approving a ballot initiative known as proposition 71. “We have around $900 million left to work with, and we wanted a plan that used that money to produce the greatest possible impact for our patients,” Randy Mills, CIRM’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “We didn’t want something ‘good enough,’ we wanted something ‘transformational.’”
CIRM’s so-called “Stategic Plan” aims to start 50 new clinical trials of stem-cell therapies, aid in boosting the efficiency of the federal regulatory process for such products, and halve the amount of time it takes to go from discovery ...
