California Vote Brings Windfall For Stem Cells
REPUBLICANS may have won significant victories across the country in Tuesday's elections, but California voters registered a strong dissent with Bush-administration policy by approving vastly expanded state funding for medical research involving embryonic stem cells.</br></br>The passage of California's Proposition 71, supported by nearly 60% of the state's voters, appears likely to herald a new era in U.S. stem-cell research. Restrictions on federal funding of the work have led to worries that the U.S. may be lagging behind in the nascent field of "regenerative medicine," so called because of hopes that stem cells might be useful in treating conditions such as paralyzing spinal injuries, diabetes or Parkinson's disease.</br></br>Without question, Prop. 71 represents a financial windfall to embryonic stem-cell research. The measure, now enshrined in the California Constitution, sets aside $350 million a year for the work during the next decade or so, up to a total of $3 billion. That sum dwarfs the $25 million the federal National Institutes of Health allocated to embryonic stem-cell grants last year and is three times as much as what defeated Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry vowed to provide in federal funding.</br></br>Yet implementing the measure will raise a variety of new challenges, not least the question of whether the state can afford to devote so much money to basic research that might not yield medical or financial returns for a decade or more. During the past several years, California has consistently run the largest budget deficits in the nation, a fiscal gap it has temporarily plugged only by selling billions of dollars' of new bonds. Prop. 71, which will be funded by bond sales, could cost the state as much as $6 billion during the next 30 years.</br></br>It is unclear exactly how the new California Institute of Regenerative Medicine mandated by Prop. 71 will allocate the new research funds, and whether the state stands to benefit financially if the research leads to commercial medical therapies. While Prop. 71's approval may draw bright medical researchers and fresh biotechnology investment to California, it also may spur other states to pass similar measures in order to level the playing field.