Pataki announces program to boost biotech

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Date: 1/27/2006 2:49:05 PM Eastern Standard Time
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Crain�s Health Pulse

Pataki announces program to boost biotech
by Catherine Tymkiw

Gov. George Pataki announced a $200 million program to promote biotech research, according to an announcement late Thursday.

Of the $200 million, $40 million will be used to build facilities in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Columbia, Cornell, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Mount Sinai and New York University are among the schools and research facilities that will use the funds to expand biotechnology and biomedicine research. The grants would be matched another $600 million in already-pledged private and federal funding.


The initial $200 million will come from a combination of $40 million of previously authorized capital funding and $160 million from the Charitable Asset Foundation, a trust created in 2002 to help expand or create health care programs and solutions.

Two boards would be created to oversee the grant program. The Biomedicine Advisory Board would create a process for applications and reviewing proposals. The Bioethics Advisory Board would be responsible for keeping the foundation informed about ethical, social and legal issues arising from the applicants. Issues could range from using human research subjects to outlining protocols for procuring biomedical materials.

The hot-button issue of embryonic stem cell research was not addressed. �It was studiously neutral in language,� said a spokesman for New Yorkers for the Advancement of Medical Research.

The Catholic Conference is fighting the funding of stem cell research, using such tactics as sending �action alerts� to people on its mailing lists asking them to write the governor saying that destroying embryos is immoral. �There could still be a legislative fight on embryonic cell use,� according to NYAMR.

A version of this story appeared earlier in Crain�s Health Pulse.