Records Request Revealing

Wisconsin State Journal – Opinion Page
Focus: Sunshine Week

As a patient advocate for state funding of stem cell research and who believes that all such public funding should include a payback provision for the Wisconsin taxpayer, I requested in writing a public document from the Wisconsin Department of Commerce.

This was a low-interest, $1million loan agreement between WDC and Cellular Dynamic International Inc. Upon careful review I found no such public benefit provision of any kind except for the repayment of the loan along with 2 percent interest fees.

While there is strong community consensus in Wisconsin that stem cell research has tremendous potential to reduce suffering and make health care more affordable, there appears at this time little if any awareness that such public support should address the issue of taxpayer payback

California requires if their grantee’s product or patent results in some commercial
profit, some percent of these profits, after costs have been met, will be returned to the taxpayer either in cash or in kind, for example, drug discounts.