Maybe Next Year?
The CEO of Geron has repeatedly promised that it will begin the first clinical trials of potential embryonic stem cell therapies any day now. It now looks like Thomas Okarma will assure us once again the trials will begin "next year" - just as he's done since at least 2004. Yesterday, his company announced that the US Food and Drug Administration has delayed the decision regarding approval.
Okama may attribute this to frustrating bureaucratic red tape. While that may be true, it seems that he has consistently either underestimated the complexity of his undertaking, or misled investors. Regardless, those of us who support embryonic stem cell research should urge caution, not haste. A botched clinical trial will set the field back years, if not decades.
Previously on Biopolitical Times: