The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine has chosen Randal Mills to be its next president and CEO, ScienceInsider reports.
Mills served as CEO of Osiris Therapeutics, a stem-cell therapeutics company, for nearly 10 years and would bring industry know-how to CIRM, it adds. For instance, in 2012, Osiris received regulatory approval from Canadian officials for its Prochymal stem cell drug to treat bone marrow transplant complications.
CIRM announced a new strategic plan in 2012, shifting the agency's focus from basic research to clinical applications. Jeff Sheehy, a CIRM board member and HIV patient advocate, tells ScienceInsider that Mills can help advance that goal.
“We’re getting someone who’s actually taken a stem cell product to market," he says. “We need something like that to happen with some of our projects.”
Mills succeeds Alan Trounson who announced last October that he was leaving the agency after six years there.