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Editorial: Don’t leave LSDF to die at feet of Legislature

Sat., May 23, 2015

The Life Sciences Discovery Fund may have cancer; possibly the only way the 10-year-old program survives the budget wars in Olympia.

Created to identify promising early stage health care technologies and methodologies, the fund has awarded more than 100 grants to Washington scientists, about 15 percent of them in Eastern Washington. Of the 47 startup companies that received state dollars, a handful have failed; a few have been home runs.

Adaptive Biotechnologies, for example, was spun off the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center with the help of a $150,000 LSDF grant. The company has since raised another $400 million, and the payroll has expanded from six to 170.

The fund estimates its grants have helped generate $1 billion in economic activity in Washington.

Thursday, the fund announced 10 more awards to commercialize research, including efforts at Washington State University to develop gluten-free wheat. But those could be the last grants awarded, and may not get the dollars pledged.

The $26 million check the LSDF receives annually from a tobacco settlement negotiated in 1999 by then-Attorney General Chris Gregoire has been too juicy a target since the recession hit in 2008.

The Legislature has siphoned $17 million into the general fund in recent budgets, leaving $9.2 million for the fund. Now, legislators want the last $25 million left in the till, even the money already committed. The LSDF would have perished last year but for a veto by Gov. Jay Inslee, who will not have that option this year.

The fund is scheduled to expire in 2018, when the settlement money runs out. But where there’s cancer, there’s hope, at least for the LSDF.

There are four bills in the Legislature that focus new state support for medical research on cancer. Funding could be generated by a cigarette tax hike, or a $100 per month addition to insurance premiums paid by school personnel who smoke.

That ought to sell a lot of anti-nicotine patches.

At least one of the bills would entrust administration of the money to the LSDF, which has also been designated the overseer of marijuana research licenses. Another bill would create a cancer research endowment authority.

Finding a cure for cancer is a noble cause, but so are many others that will save the lives of Washingtonians. Some, seemingly, are simple.

With the help of $4 million from the LSDF, two doctors developed a checklist for standardizing operating room procedures that has saved an estimated 350 lives and $67 million.

Awarding grants necessarily selects winners from losers. If the Legislature wants to continue support for health care research, why dismantle the LSDF, which has a track record, and a relatively modest overhead of less than 10 percent?

Other states are dedicating a lot more money and energy to encourage biomedical research. Washington’s universities and hospitals are tremendous assets, but an LSDF has a role, too.