Three of the biggest European pharmaceutical companies -GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca and Roche- have launched the Stem Cells for Safer Medicines, or SC4SM, a collaboration to develop stem cells for safety testing of new drugs through a public-private partnership.

SC4SM is the international industry's first public-private partnership on human embryonic stem cells, following a recommendation by Sir John Pattison's 2005 report on the future of stem cell research in Britain.

Dr Wright said: "It has taken a long time to set up because of the sensitivities. We have an ethical framework that says we should only use existing embryonic stem cell lines [in the UK stem cell bank] and next year we will have an independent ethics advisory board to provide further advice."

The consortium plans to fund five projects within the next year, aimed at converting human embryonic stem cells into hepatocytes (liver cells). The second target will be cardiomyocytes (heart cells).

Source: Financial Times