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Stem Cell Therapies Aimed at Patient Trials Get $230 Million Share | Email | Print | A A A By Rob Waters Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- California’s stem-cell agency handed out $229.7 million to 14 research teams, an infusion intended to enable tests of treatments in humans to start within four years. The agency acted today to stimulate commercial drug development, making eight grants to researchers collaborating with companies, said Alan Trounson, the agency’s president. The top-ranked project is a partnership of the City of Hope, a nonprofit treatment center near Los Angeles, and Sangamo Biosciences, a Richmond, California-based biotechnology company. They received $14.6 million to work on a new method for using stem cells to treat AIDS and the virus that causes it, HIV. To be eligible for funding, applicants must show they would be ready in four years to gain U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance to start human studies. Involving companies with experience running clinical trials and dealing with regulators will speed the process, Trounson said. “We feel more confident if there’s a company associated with the projects,” Trounson said yesterday in a telephone interview. “We’re going to be very closely involved with the groups. They have to achieve milestones and if they don’t, we’ll terminate the grant and reinvest our money elsewhere.” Funding agencies from Canada and the United Kingdom added about $43 million to the amount coming from the 4-year-old state agency, called the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. $20 Million Loan One of the awards, for $20 million, goes to closely held Novocell, based in San Diego, to accelerate its effort to develop a stem-cell therapy for diabetes. The money is a long- term loan to the company. Other grant projects will develop treatments for diabetes, sickle cell anemia, leukemia, heart disease and other conditions. Stanford University and the University of California, Los Angeles, were the top recipients, with each getting funding for three projects. Stanford’s grants totaled $51.7 million and UCLA will get $49.2 million. A UCLA-led effort to target so-called cancer stem cells to treat brain, colon and other solid tumors will get an additional $20 million from the Cancer Stem Cell Consortium, a project partly funded by the Canadian government. That project is led by Dennis Slamon, who helped develop the cancer drug Herceptin marketed by Roche Holding AG. The projects were chosen by a committee of board members and outside experts from among applications submitted by California institutions. Several of the projects pursue research in new directions. Two of the grants -- to the City of Hope-Sangamo Biosciences partnership and to the UCLA AIDS Institute -- will support efforts to develop new approaches to the treatment of AIDS. Both attempt to boost immunity to the disease by mimicking a successful stem-cell treatment of a patient last year in Germany. To contact the reporter on this story: Rob Waters in San Francisco at rwaters5@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: October 28, 2009 14:49 EDT

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