Advanced Cell Technology, which made front page news around the world last month with its claim that scientists had obtained stem cells from embryos without destroying them, is now fielding hard questions about its research from other scientists. The company’s business practices are also facing scrutiny.
Scientist Dr. Robin Lovell-Badge told the BBC the day of the stem cell announcement in the science journal Nature that: “I am unconvinced by the ethical arguments - spare IVF embryos used to derive the cell lines would have been destroyed anyway.”
After Dr. Lovell-Badge’s statement, Nature asked Advanced Cell Technology’s head of research, Dr. Robert Lanza, to clarify his work. Not one but two press releases, as reported by The Scientist’s blogger Brendan Maher, were sent out by the Nature press office over the next several days to clarify the original announcement. They stated that though stem cells were indeed grown from one cell extracted from an 8-to-10 cell blastomeres, those embryos were destroyed in the course of Dr. Lanza’s research.
The company maintains that it did not intentionally mislead the press, according to an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer. But Advanced Cell Technology clearly caused the scientific and the lay press to look like bunglers for rushing a hot-button story out to the public without examining the underlying science more carefully.
I’m no scientist, but as I wrote in a previous entry, the company has made other grand announcements about its research at around the same time it needed money to keep the company running. In 2001 and 2003 (before its reverse merger), the company claimed that it had developed procedures to clone embryos and thus harvest stem cells ethically. However, neither produced viable stem cells for biomedical research. It then merged with a publicly traded shell company that formerly manufactured Hopi katchina dolls. The move enabled Advanced Cell Technology to raise equity in the public markets.
That’s not all — a quick peek at the company’s recent SEC filings and press releases reveals even more interesting developments in this story: The company privately financed new debt to investors, including Anthem Venture Partners (who own 20% of ACT), that netted the company some $13 million in cash. The deal closed on September 8, 2006. CEO William Caldwell IV told the UPI, “We expect the proceeds generated by these financings will fund preclinical studies and accelerate our progress to commencement of the clinical studies necessary to develop real treatments that tap the amazing promise of stem cell technology.”
The company may also want to make sure that breakthrough technology it developed for the ethical harvesting of stem cells actually works.
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