Aggregated News
Ten of the 29 directors of California's new stem cell program serve on biotech or pharmaceutical firms' boards of directors or have extensive holdings in those industries, leading critics to challenge their ability to fairly represent taxpayers in doling out $3 billion in state funds.
Members of the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, created by voter passage of the stem cell initiative in November, reported interests ranging from real estate to movie production in statements of economic interest filed this week.
Six members, including Sacramento physician Francisco Prieto and University of California, Davis, medical school head Claire Pomeroy, had no reportable interests beyond salaries. Four missed the filing deadline.
But 10 appointees hold board positions or stock in a wide variety of pharmaceutical and biotech firms that opponents of Proposition 71 and consumer advocates said could one day benefit from the state's financing of stem cell research.
"They need to divest from the market," said Jamie Court, head of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. "You can't make money off the biotech research you are overseeing."
While other state boards...
Members of the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, created by voter passage of the stem cell initiative in November, reported interests ranging from real estate to movie production in statements of economic interest filed this week.
Six members, including Sacramento physician Francisco Prieto and University of California, Davis, medical school head Claire Pomeroy, had no reportable interests beyond salaries. Four missed the filing deadline.
But 10 appointees hold board positions or stock in a wide variety of pharmaceutical and biotech firms that opponents of Proposition 71 and consumer advocates said could one day benefit from the state's financing of stem cell research.
"They need to divest from the market," said Jamie Court, head of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. "You can't make money off the biotech research you are overseeing."
While other state boards...