Lead Into Gold: The Venture Capitalists Cometh
"We all feel the (induced pluripotent stem cells) technology has the potential to transform the regenerative medicine space," said Thane Kreiner, chief executive officer of iZumi..."Our intent is to collaborate broadly with the best scientists in the world," he said. The iZumi agreement is Gladstone's first collaboration in the stem cell field with a private company. The work will concentrate on the potential use of stem cells in cardiovascular medicine and drug discovery, Srivastava said. The creation of pluripotent stem cells from adult human cells may accelerate the emergence of commercial products in the field, Srivastava said. Stem cells derived from adults known to have certain diseases could be used as research tools by pharmaceutical companies developing new drugs, he said. Conceivably, young adults may someday want to bank stem cells as possible future sources of treatment. Actual therapies from stem cells as replacement tissues may be no more than a dozen years away, Srivastava said. "It's not just a pipe dream any more."
There is an old saying that may be a cliche`, but it is true nonetheless: Money talks. In ESCR and human cloning research, the silence has been deafening: Venture capitalists having done their due diligence, they have widely avoided the field knowing the difference between facts on the ground and the bilious political hype emanating from Big Biotech aimed at getting a blank check (financial and ethical) from the govt.
But now, with the astounding early success of the IPSCs, "the money" is beginning to speak. From the story:
This opening--along with the venture capital pouring into adult stem cell research--may be the most important validation of the future of regenerative medicine as a wholly ethical and uncontroversial field that I have yet seen.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 8:35 AM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
This is great news and maybe the ethical researchers will start getting the funding they deserve. Unfortunately, ESC proponents will continue to push for public funding and they will be extremely pushy now that the private money has "spoken".
I think we should point out that the private venture capital is not to be confused with the boat loads of philanthropic monies that were pouring into ESCR and cloning the last few years. I think you noted that the Rockefeller Institute, or some foundation like that, catalogued almost $2 billion pouring into ESCR and cloning from private foundations and state funding. That was mentioned, if I'm not mistaken, in your article announcing the iPSCs. The $2 billion-I don't know if it's all been spent but it seems like a lot of it had been spent and that the number is a huge number, the $2 billion means that ESCR and cloning advocates can't say there hasn't been enough money to go around. That seems to say that plenty of charitable money went to ESCR but not venture capital.
I sure hope that the iSPCs and non embryonic stem cells work well. I hope spokespeople like this are not puffing the goods like John Kerry and Edwards, Reid, Hatch, Specter and etc did with ESCR. We don't want to be guilty of the same hyping and preying on the hopes and fears of sufferers like Kerry, Reid et al have shamefully done for political purposes. But it does seem that the successes we see every day are huge and if they were from ESCR, we'd be talking about miracles.
Scientists with any brains have always understood the severe limitations to therapeutic cures from human embryonic stem cells. But it is all about strategies to get more money to push science forward at any cost without true regard to human dignity and how it will impact our society. And the public continues to be fooled time and time again by the media. Place a person on TV with a debilitating disease sending out a plea for help and hope. Engender the American’s sympathy and fear. Pay a few scientists and bioethicists to say the right things to emphasize a façade of hope through scientific advancement….. and SHAZAAAM…the country turns to accepting the use of human embryos for experimental research studies. And what is even more ironic to the public’s ignorance, is that embryonic stem cells are currently most highly used in bio-warfare research, pharmaceutical research to find more erectile dysfunction drugs and the like, and to perfect techniques to clone humans. The chance of using human embryonic stem cells for any direct therapeutic purpose such as a neurological disorder for example, is immensely closer to nil than to achieving any cure. You and your children will not see it in your lifetime.
The same sympathy strategy will be used this September when a big charity push is scheduled to fund more cancer research. We already publically fund the National Cancer Institute at a tune of FIVE BILLION DOLLARS a year. And have been for quite some time. And it seems that this amount is just not enough. (I wish I had a job where I failed time and time again ….and time and time again they kept giving me more raises.) I am sure in September we will see many cancer patients on TV hoping and pleading for more money for “advanced scientific research” to find the cure to cancer. People will unfortunately still fall for it. And if you do not and instead raise concern about what is going on, you will be called uncaring…or even unpatriotic…against the WAR ON CANCER..
We keep being overwhelmed with all these sympathy pleas to fund advanced scientific research but cannot and don’t even care enough to institute a decent healthcare program for our own citizens….. healthcare, in fact that would prevent cancer and other disease.
Take your blinders off, people.
Watchdogonscience.blogspot.com
watchdog on science: Thanks for stopping by. You are, of course, correct. The very people who claim that others are anti-science becasue of their ethical values, actually corrupt science by turning it into politics. It's all about the trough, isn't it?
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home