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American Morning
Stem Cell Research in Spotlight in Washington This Week
Aired August 20, 2001 - 11:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Stem cell research is in the spotlight in Washington this week, the critical research facing some new obstacles.
Our medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports, patents and licensing agreements may threaten easy access to stem cell lines.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The intricacies of science meet the intricacies of law. CNN has learned the National Institutes of Health will hold a series of meetings this week with groups holding patents to human embryonic stem cell lines.
Australian company Bresagen told CNN it will meet with NIH officials for two hours on Wednesday. The biotech company says it holds patent rights to four of the 60 stem cell lines for which the president authorized federal funding.
Meantime, NIH says it will be meeting with the University of Wisconsin group that holds a patent on five stem cell lines it's scientists derived.
Many of the rest of the lines are held by other companies in Singapore, Sweden and India, this according to U.S. government officials.
At issue is how researchers will get access to the 60 stem cell lines. While Secretary Tommy Thompson has said he's confident access won't be an issue:
TOMMY THOMPSON, HHS SECRETARY: They're willing to cooperate in any way possible to allow this research to go ahead.
GUPTA: But some researchers and bioethicists say that's easier said than done.
ARTHUR CAPLAN, BIOETHICIST, UNIV. OF PENN.: So I think we're going to really have a problem here in fulfilling what Tommy Thompson promised, what George Bush promised, and that was that what's out there is enough, what's out there can be used. Just on problems of patenting alone, very tough to get at these things.
GUPTA: Caplan says access to many of the stem cells will be determined by companies which have invested heavily in stem cell research and technology and have their own commercial interests in mind.
The University of Wisconsin team says its primary concern is to provide "research to researchers around the world." Bresagen officials say they, too, are eager to cooperate.
Meanwhile, the federal government has yet to announce how much money will be allocated for stem cell research, and how researchers will apply and qualify for the funds.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: The complexities of funding some say are even more challenging than access issues to the stem cell lines. Working out all these details could take months.
Meantime, researchers and all those potential beneficiaries -- that is the millions of people with diseases including Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and diabetes -- are going to have to wait.
KAGAN: Well, they're going to wait, Sanjay, but also, they're going to be probably watching what happens with these the meeting this week. How much can we expect from these meetings this week?
GUPTA: Right. This is a pretty important week. There's a lot of closed-door meetings, so we can't really get into the hearings. What we are hearing is that a lot of these corporations and companies that wish to basically to cooperate with the government will, you know, go ahead and, you know, want to cooperate, and essentially hopefully provide the government with some access to these stem cell lines. You know, we'll have to wait and see of what actually happens.
What we're also hearing is a lot of companies have profitability, issue, have money issues to think about, and that may certainly come up with these closed-door meetings as well -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And you know we do this to all the new guys, just to see if you are paying attention.
It's not you. It's us. You did a fine job.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you.
GUPTA: Thank you.
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