Robert Kaplan is a senior scholar at the Stanford University School of Medicine and co-chair of the No on Prop 38 campaign.
One of the key arguments of the No on Prop 38 campaign cites a CalMatters investigative report, which found that the highly specific criteria leave only one institution qualified to receive funding: the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy, associated with UCLA and founded by Michelson.
“When I first heard of Proposition 38, I was excited about it because it provides more money for biomedical research, which I think is necessary,” Kaplan said.
Kaplan says there needs to be open competition between institutions and questions the limiting of funding to a single discipline, immunotherapy, when there is a wider array of biomedical research.
He is also concerned that the anticipated 10% of revenue generated by discoveries funded through the measure to repay the General Fund could take decades, given the uncertainty in the amounts and timing.
Here’s an article about this.
Link to the CalMatters story.