Some local companies spend millions in stem cell research

PALO ALTO, Calif. Nov. 20, 2007 (KGO) (KGO) -- So far, the San Francisco based California Institute of Regenerative Medicine has approved more than $200 million dollars in research grants.

Today's breakthrough is a huge headline-- but reaction from Bay Area bio-tech companies is a bit mild. Why?

A company like Geron in Menlo Park has spent $100 million so far on embryonic stem cell research. Its president says he doubts the new adult cells will bear any fruit.

Others, such as Irving Weissman at Stanford Medical School, think biotech companies may see a longer-term benefit.

Weissman is director of the Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, and a founder of a private biotech firm, Stemcells Inc.

"Ten years down the line when those cell lines are available and easier and cheaper and cleaner, and when those cell lines don't carry potentially dangerous genes or uses viruses to make them, it may change things a lot," said Dr. Irving Weissman from Stanford Institute of Stem Cell Biology.

Dr. Weissman won't forecast if this new development will attract more money from investment banks and venture firms.

"I don't know which commercial companies -- ones that I'm associated with or not -- are going to take advantage of it. I do know that this will heighten the interest of people in finding this new kind of medicine -- regenerative medicine by self-renewing stem cells -- that repair once and for all, rather than me remembering every day to take my drugs, morning and night, just to keep myself at the state I am," said Dr. Weissman.

Patient advocate don reed, whose son Roman suffered a spinal cord injury playing football, believes biotech companies have an opportunity to save taxpayers money.

"Every biomedical company in the world has got to be impressed by one staggering statistic -- $2 trillion -- which is how much last year's medical costs were for America. About $2 trillion is roughly equivalent to every federal income tax dollar, and 75-percent of that goes to chronic disease and disability," said patient advocate Don Reed.

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