WARF takes step toward the democracy of science

The recent action by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) to further clarify its licensing and fee practices for non-commercial stem cell research entities is a big step forward in the support of non-profits, the democracy of science, and the tax payers of Wisconsin. WARF should be commended for taking this action.

It also was a wise and timely public relations move which will go a long way toward mollifying out-of-state stem cell critics who have charged WARF with unduly impeding America’s progress in stem cell research and development. This more enlightened policy more accurately portrays how the public sector and its institutions should work hand in hand with the not-for-profit community to help ensure that the intended benefits of such science will serve all the citizens of Wisconsin.

Without this more recent policy, WARF itself has laid itself open to the charge by non-profit watchdog groups of impeding vital, publicly funded stem cell research, and paradoxically, supporting the “commercialization” of public financed stem cell research. Wisconsin taxpayers want to know that their money for stem cell research will result
in ever more affordable and accessible medical outcomes. They no longer choose to pay twice, first to publicly subsidize private research and development, and again when the derived cures reach their local pharmacy.

WARF’s decision to drop their disguised threat to require the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to buy a license from WARF and require CIRM to share their royalties, has done much to diffuse the ever growing acrimony between them. In spite of WARF’s claim to the contrary, its decision to adopt a more conciliatory posture with CIRM and the larger stem cell community, will likely significantly soften or prevent any potential litigation that might otherwise accompany the federal patent office’s upcoming review of WARF’s stem cell patents.

The public, and more specifically, the seventy-six million baby boomers in this country, those born between 1946 and 1964, are helping redefine every aspect of our culture, from the media to health care. There critical attitude and motivation to expect more from their health research dollar is driven by their own desire for life extension and human enhancement. This group envisions that stem cell research will eventually extend their power, influence, and themselves deep into the twenty-first century.

Law makes and our public officials who fail to recognize what has been called the “most affluent demographic group on the planet’ will do so at their own peril. Increasingly this new health care culture emphasizing “longevity medicine” will lead not just to longer lives, but to longer, more productive workers. In a future at risk of depopulation due to lower birth rates, longevity medicine will likely become a much needed social entitlement. Our lawmakers who, as I write this article, are formulating a new and more comprehensive health care program for us all, would do well to include in their health care policy making, the role that the taxpayers’stem cell dollars should play in making this care more affordable and accessible to all our citizens.