CGS-authored
December 29, 2004 to January 4, 2005 issue
The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are no strangers to the revolving door between government and the industries it supposedly regulates. Just this year two prominent Congress members who had authored legislation governing the sectors announced they're stepping down to become the heads of the Biotechnology Industry Organization and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
But the selection – or more accurately, coronation – of Robert Klein as the chair of the committee governing California's new Institute for Regenerative Medicine may be the most overt case of cronyism and insider dealing in biomedicine yet.
The IRM was created by November's Proposition 71, which directs the state to issue $3 billion in bonds to fund stem-cell research. Although many liberals supported it as an understandable reaction to the Bush administration's theocratic leanings, many progressives who support embryonic stem-cell research – including the Bay Guardian and the Center for Genetics and Society – came out against it, citing lack of accountability, inadequate protection of egg providers, and inherent conflicts of interest.
Klein, a real...