Weekly reads: RFK Jr. stem cell summit, FDA OKs eye cell therapy, cartilage repair

I had a feeling late last year that I’d frequently be writing about RFK Jr. and his impact on the FDA. However, I didn’t realize some of that would be writing for STAT News.

As I mentioned a few days ago, I now have a new regular column over there. I thought the column would be just a once-a-month kind of thing, but so much has been happening that I put together another column this week.

RFK Jr. stem cells, regenerative roundtable
RFK Jr. had a regenerative roundtable that sparked concerns for me. Donna Chang of Hope Biosciences, an adult adipose cell biotech in Texas, posted a video talking about her experience attending the meeting and included the above picture of herself with Kennedy. This image is a screengrab from the video.

RFK Jr. and regenerative medicine

Yes, it’s on Kennedy: RFK Jr.’s regenerative medicine roundtable on stem cell deregulation raises red flags. Check it out.

Donna Chang of Hope Biosciences did a video about attending the Kennedy meeting. It provided some info. See a picture from her video above of her and RFK Jr. I also highly recommend this piece from Endpoints, which had the scoop on the meeting: RFK Jr. convened roundtable around ways to reduce stem cell regulation.

Kennedy is not the FDA commissioner, but as head of HHS, he will have major sway. A big question is whether likely FDA Commissioner Marty Makary will go along with Kennedy or stick to rigorous science-based medicine.

Good news: FDA approves new cell therapy for rare eye condition

Other recommended reads

Blast from the past: do some researchers have too much NIH funding?

Stem cell monopoly: do not pass go, do not collect $200,000. This piece is from 14 years ago. It’s interesting to sometimes run across individual PIs now who have 5, 6, or even 7 R01s at once time. How is that possible?

Every so often there’s a debate as to whether NIH should limit the maximum number of R01s that any one PI can have. What do you think?

Some data have suggested that impact per each R01 grant goes down after having three R01s.

As a side note, I think the post mentioned $200K here because of the Monopoly connection and the $200 for passing Go. Unfortunately, NIH modules for R01s have been stuck at a max of $250K for ages, although fewer people submit modular R01 proposals these days.

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