Scientists call proposal a necessary step
BYLINE: Scott Allen GLOBE STAFF
Scientists praised Governor Deval Patrick's proposed $1 billion investment in the state's life sciences industry yesterday as an important way to offset stagnant funding from the federal government and its limits on paying for research involving human embryonic stem cells. They said that the Patrick plan is a necessary response to competition from other states that have made substantial investments in science, threatening the reputation of Massachusetts as a national leader.
California, where voters approved $3 billion for stem cell research in 2004, has already emerged as the leading public funder of embryonic stem cell work in the world, doling out more money in a single year than the federal government has in the past four.
At least five other states have followed California's lead, including Connecticut, which has pledged $100 million over 10 years for stem cell research in the state. Others, including New York, are considering initiatives.
Details of the Patrick plan have not been worked out, but this much is clear: He wants to spend hundreds of millions of dollars over the next decade to train scientists and fund their research, while creating a repository for embryonic stem cells where academic and industry researchers alike could get easy access to the cells. Eight Massachusetts universities and hospitals have agreed to share cells with the bank.
"We have some worries that California is poised to take some of our people," said Dr. Robert Finberg, chairman of medicine at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, which will host Patrick's proposed stem cell bank. "The governor is being proactive. He is saying we are the hub of the life science universe and we intend to keep it that way."
Dr. Joseph Martin, dean of Harvard Medical School, said Massachusetts already has most of the ingredients for growth of an industry that accounts for nearly one out of every seven jobs, but he said that the biotechnology companies that will create the next generation of medical treatments are looking for help, here or elsewhere.
They "are very eager to hear more plans for support from the state government," Martin said, calling for quick adoption of Patrick's proposal, including "tax incentives and the kind of commitments the state is prepared to make to unequivocally say, `We value your being here."'
Interstate competition was far less important in the late 1990s when federal funding for biomedical research at the National Institutes for Health was in the middle of a five-year doubling that ended in 2003.
Since that time, NIH funding has been frozen, resulting in a 13 percent reduction in buying power because of inflation.
For Massachusetts, one of the leading recipients of NIH money, the erosion of support has been particularly painful. Even established scientists have not had their projects funded or have had their grants cut sharply.
Meanwhile, President Bush banned federal funding for projects using human embryonic stem cells that were created after August 2001. The cells, derived from fertilized embryos, are among the most promising areas of scientific research because they can turn into any kind of cell, potentially replacing damaged or diseased tissue. But conservatives say the research is immoral because harvesting the cells requires the destruction of embryos, which critics say amounts to taking human life.
"The stem cell issue became sort of the poster child of innovation and research," Martin said.
In response to the Bush research limits, Harvard set up a private Stem Cell Institute, which has raised about $50 million to fund research on embryonic stem cells created after the federal cutoff, cells that scientists say have advantages over the older ones.
California voters stiffened competition between states in 2004 when they overwhelmingly approved Proposition 71, authorizing spending of up to $3 billion over 10 years for research involving stem cells derived from both embryos and adults.
By early June, the newly created California Institute for Regenerative Medicine will have doled out $200 million for training of scientists as well as direct stem cell research, according to agency officials.
The agency is also in the process of handing out $148 million for research involving embryonic stem cells specifically; by comparison, the federal government has given out $139 million for embryonic stem cell research since 2004.
"We are now the largest source of human embryonic stem cell funding in the world," said California spokesman Dale A. Carlson. He said he welcomed the Massachusetts initiative, adding: "This is not a race for the economic benefits of stem cell research. The race is to cure disease."