Seven years after the California ballot initiative to fund embryonic stem cell research, taxpayers have gotten zilch — JunkScience.com predicted this outcome.
Investor’s Business Daily editorializes,
In May, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) granted Geron $25 million for the trial. Geron says it has repaid the $6.4 million of the loan it has spent, but that’s the tip of a much larger iceberg.
CIRM was created by California’s Proposition 71 (2004), which authorized it to issue $3 billion in grants, funded by bonds, over 10 years for embryonic stem cell and other biomedical research. The campaign for Proposition 71 held out the promise of quick miracle cures for everything from spinal disorders to Parkinson’s.
One campaign ad showed actor Christopher Reeve, aka Superman, asking California voters to “stand up for those who can’t.”
Now, some seven years later, there have been some impressive labs built, research papers published, and respected scientists hired at exorbitant salaries, but no miracle cures or even marketable therapies likely for years, if not decades, to come.
The promised financial payback for the financially strapped citizens of California is also far off.
Read Steve Milloy’s October 2004 FoxNews.com column, “Stumping for Stem Cells”.