Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation changes stem cell policies to encourage greater academic, industry collaboration
(Madison,
WI) The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) announced today
three policy changes and clarifications that are expected to have a
positive effect on stem cell research. The new policies will affect
industry-sponsored stem cell research, academic and commercial
licensing, and WARF’s relationship with the California Institute for
Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), and will apply to current and future
license agreements.
Industry-sponsored stem cell research will be
facilitated by a new WARF policy that will enable companies to sponsor
research at an academic or non-profit institution without a license,
regardless of location and regardless of intellectual property rights
passing from the research institution to the company. This will enable
companies to get started with stem cell research in a low-cost, visible
manner and increase funding of stem cell research by for-profit
companies. Companies will still need a license when they want to bring
the research into their company laboratories or when they want to
develop a product for the market.
Second,
while ensuring provisions related to informed consent for embryo
donations are communicated and honored, WARF is changing the cell
transfer provisions in its academic and commercial licensing. The new
policy will allow easier and simpler, cost-free cell transfers among
researchers. This will facilitate collaborations within the human
embryonic stem cell research community and thus advance the field.
WARF is also clarifying
its position with regards to the California Institute for Regenerative
Medicine (CIRM). As a not-for-profit, grant-making organization, CIRM
does not require any license or agreement from WARF to pursue its grant
making policies. Further, WARF does not expect CIRM to remit to WARF or
WiCell any portion of payment that CIRM receives from its grantees.
WARF has been and will continue to be supportive of CIRM’s efforts to
fund human embryonic stem cell research and move the technology forward.
The WARF policy changes are effective immediately.
Documents reflecting these changes are now available on the WiCell and
NIH Web sites (http://www.wicell.org and
http://stemcells.nih.gov/research/registry, respectively.) CONTACT: Andy Cohn<> Director of Government Relations and Public Relations, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (608) 263-2821
