I have been very critical of Advanced Cell Technology, believing it to be a publicity seeking enterprise that used press releases to raise venture capital for morally problematic research into human cloning, ESC, the like, while at the same time, it tried to manipulate the political system to create an environment that would be conducive to it receiving taxpayer dollars. But now, that strategy may have reached the point of exhaustion. The company is apparently on the verge of going out of business. From the story:
In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Tuesday, the company warned that it doesn’t have cash to continue operating after July 31 without raising additional money or drastically slashing operations. It reported $17 million in current liabilities, but only $1 million in cash and other current assets, an indication it could be forced to file for bankruptcy protection. And ACT’s stock, which was as high as $8 per share three years ago, closed yesterday at 2.5 cents a share.I think what killed ACT was the iPSCs. Once normal skin cells could be turned into pluripotent stem cells, the air began to leak out of the cloning balloon. ACT’s “breakthrough” of the month routine (I exaggerate only a little) couldn’t match the reality that was happening in labs with iPSCs from Japan to America.
In many ways ACT was like the little boy who cried, “Wolf!” It has lost its credibility—a commodity that is almost irreplaceable. Whatever the future holds for ACT, it is doubtful a press release can save it now. And even if it remains afloat, it won’t be the same enterprise. And frankly, that is a good thing.
