Whether you’re happy about the latest development from Washington depends on what side of the political aisle you normally sit on, but President Obama’s latest executive decision is causing a stir one way or the other since it involved the controversial usage of embryonic stem cell research.
Flashback the length of two presidential terms to the first year of the Bush administration. Prior to that time, federal funding was allowed by law to go towards funding research done with human embryonic stem cells. But in August 2001, then president Bush reversed the decision based on ethical grounds and the conviction that human life started at the moment of conception.
Though researchers could still receive funding for already-existing batches of the cells contained within the days-old human embryos, they unsurprisingly weren’t happy with the removal of further financial support.
That’s all changed with a reversal of the original reversal though, a move that these same researchers and the organizations employing them, are celebrating. Dr. Irving Weissman was so excited at the news that he flew cross-country for the event, while a slightly less jubilant Larry Soler of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation declared his intentions to “Twitter” his thoughts on the matter. Other people are allegedly limiting themselves to emailing their sentiments - reportedly littered with exclamation points - to colleagues and friends.
And many investors are leaping on the news as well, sending relevant stocks shooting up. Geron Corp. (Nasdaq: GERN) took a 23% jump of joy at the announcement and StemCells Inc. (Nasdaq: STEM) another company set to profit massively from the move saw its shares increase by 43%. Both are still up as I write at 12:40 pm to $4.61 and $1.90 respectively.
BioTime’s Michael West - another big winner today in the markets so far today - is certain that his company will benefit almost immediately from the reversal, since it recently bought dozens of stem cell batches and is looking to sell them to companies such as the one listed above.
Monday, March 09, 2009 - by Jeannette Di Louie, Assistant Editor, Mt. Vernon Research
