I guess smartalix should get a part-time job with his crystal ball.
President Bush’s embryonic stem cell policy appears to be driving U.S. companies to move promising research in this field overseas.
Geron, which is based in Menlo Park, Calif., said Monday it was collaborating with the University of Edinburgh in Scotland to conduct preclinical studies of cell types that had been derived from human embryonic stem cells.
Geron did not respond to United Press International’s request for comment, but David Greenwood, the company’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, said in a statement the favorable environment for stem cell research in the United Kingdom was a primary reason they decided to conduct their research in Scotland.
Scientists and other parties supportive of embryonic stem cell research are closely watching the November elections in Congress and hoping they will provide enough change to override current U.S. policies on federal funding, Lanza said.
The field really needs the large amount of funding that only the federal government can provide to help propel it along, he said.
Without the federal funding to drive the basic research, the field is struggling to get to the level where it’s ready for clinical studies and large pharmaceutical companies become involved.
All of this was predictable. The question always returns to leadership, courage — and the lack of both in Congress and the rest of government. Politicians are afraid to make policy that might cost them votes.
So does this mean that the next time that a hurricane destroys a few billion dollars in property, we can tell religious leaders who blame it on abortion clinics that “Hey, we moved all that stuff to India – tell God to leave us alone!”
Then, explain the idea of “weather” to them so they’ll leave *us* alone every time a natural event occurs.
Doesn’t King Midas supersede the good book? Anyway, someone’s thinking one-dimensionally about this whole thing. For better or for worse, we can’t even begin to calculate the impact of the U.S. falling behind in biotech.
This research will move overseas to India and China. They are dying to build this infrastructure, start PHD and Doctorate programs, and have scads of people. We will be the losers in the long run.
Radical Muslims are trying to get Islam back to the “good old days” of the 7th century. How far back are the Bible Thumpers trying to take us ? Kind of scary to wounder which is the larger problem and/or barrier to our future.
Ooooh, if you don’t give me money, I’m taking my research elsewhere!
So Geron wants to work its boondoggle in Scotland? Oh well!
Methinks that todays fundimentalist Christians want to take us back to at least the dark ages (900-1100AD) or there abouts.
You know what, if this administration didn’t think this would happen, they should be jailed.
I guess in some ways, I want back to the dark ages, where if your ruler was out of line, you could just amass enough people to go against him and overturn his dictatorship. These days it’s a lot harder.
The lawmakers in the US did this, and it serves them right if those research projects go overseas. It just proves how much they care for the LIVING people. It seems that these people care a lot more about the UNBORN, than the LIVING. Once they are out of the womb, they are on their own. Next thing they want to ban is condoms.
We’re screwed now, anyway. Big corporations no longer care if America leads or not as long as it continues to exist as a market. So in the name of globalism and fair trade companies export jobs and set up Drop-Box HQ’s overseas. Now they’re sending R&D overseas too.
Another way of looking around the goof-tube is that even should the American Feds-Kreig fund the initial research, the fat cat drug companies are waiting in the wings to pounce on the immediate profit opportunities and screw the long term health benefits for society.
“The field really needs the large amount of funding that only the federal government can provide to help propel it along, he said.”
If the line of research is so promising, then why dont they fund it themselves. There is no law stopping any drug company from investing its own money. They just want the taxpayers to foot the bill for the research, and not have to pay for it themselves. It is not like they would give any products away for free or low cost that came out of the Gov sponsored research.
Genron should put its money where its mouth is, or just quit whining and shut up.
Pathetic