California stem cell program rife with conflicts

http://www.nctimes.com/calif-stem-cell-program-rife-with-conflicts-nas-report/article_42703e10-a623-5c5e-9bb6-e0b2414f8e8d.html

Calif. stem cell program rife with conflicts: NAS report

AGENCY SHOULD SPLIT OPERATIONS FROM POLICY, ADD MORE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE MEMBERS WITHOUT CONFLICTS

California's $3 billion stem cell agency should reduce its built-in conflicts of interests or risk losing effectiveness, according to a report released today from the prestigious National Academy of Sciences.

The academy's report said the original structure of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine may have been useful to get it off the ground and insulate it from political pressure, but that time has passed. CIRM's overly centralized nature makes it vulnerable to conflicts, the report said, so it needs a separation of powers.

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A conflict of interest scandal scandal at a similar public agency, the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas, provides a warning of what could happen if CIRM doesn't adopt safeguards, the report stated.