California Plans for a $750 Million Biotech Bank

On Dec 6, Wired Magazine reported:<blockquote>A new source of $750 million in funding could soon become available for the perennially cash-starved biotech industry, particularly stem cell firms.

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine will hold its first meeting to discuss a biotech loan program on Dec. 12 in Los Angeles, with a teleconference location in San Francisco.

The biotech “bank” is the brainchild of Robert Klein, a multimillionaire real estate investment banker who serves as the unpaid chairman of the California state agency, which is the world’s largest source of funding for human embryonic stem cell research. The loan program could add as much as $1.5 billion to the $3 billion available to the agency, Klein said in an interview with Wired News.

“That amount could make a major contribution to research,” he said.</blockquote>