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Even if federal limits on human embryonic stem-cell research funding are abolished by the Obama administration, as is widely anticipated, don't expect to see companies selling treatments made from those cells any time soon.
California's $3 billion effort to fund such research, launched in 2004, illustrates some of the obstacles federal officials could face in trying to lure companies to begin such studies.
Aside from being hindered by legal challenges during its first few years, California's program has funneled the vast majority of its money so far for basic research at universities and other nonprofit institutions. And for a variety of reasons — ranging from a lack of investors to skittishness over the ethical debate surrounding the cells — only a handful of companies in the state are experimenting with embryonic stem cells on their own, despite predictions that the effort would quickly bring about a job boom.
"I would have expected there to be more interest" among businesses, said Alan Trounson, president of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which voters created in November 2004 by passing Proposition 71...
California's $3 billion effort to fund such research, launched in 2004, illustrates some of the obstacles federal officials could face in trying to lure companies to begin such studies.
Aside from being hindered by legal challenges during its first few years, California's program has funneled the vast majority of its money so far for basic research at universities and other nonprofit institutions. And for a variety of reasons — ranging from a lack of investors to skittishness over the ethical debate surrounding the cells — only a handful of companies in the state are experimenting with embryonic stem cells on their own, despite predictions that the effort would quickly bring about a job boom.
"I would have expected there to be more interest" among businesses, said Alan Trounson, president of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which voters created in November 2004 by passing Proposition 71...