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97% of Funding for Missouri Embryo Research Bill from Giant Biotech Company Which Stands to Profit Big

Significant donations have been made to politicos who support their research

By Gudrun Schultz

KANSAS CITY, Missouri, November 6, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A massive biomedical research conglomerate has funded 97 percent of the campaign to raise voter support for the controversial Missouri bill Amendment 2, which would permit stem cell research and cloning using human embryos, according to a report by Fox News Nov. 3.

Billionaire couple Jim and Virginia Stowers have directed $29 million to funding  promotion of the bill through “The Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures,” a campaign of television, radio, print and billboard ads attempting  to convince voters to support the measure at the polls November 7.  

While the couple are known as devoted philanthropists who firmly believe in funding research for medical breakthroughs, their financial connections to the biomedical sector are less well known. The couple has founded a bio-technology empire that includes an investment company with significant holdings in the healthcare sector and a non-profit biomedical research center, with a for-profit branch that markets research discoveries to medical and pharmaceutical companies.

Jim Stowers is the founder and CEO of American Century Investments, a firm with a $100 billion portfolio that invests heavily in healthcare, including biotechnology, pharmaceutical and healthcare equipment and supply companies. Fox News suggested Stowers’ company would be well positioned to benefit from the anticipated flood of investment capital into the state if Amendment 2 would pass.

The couple also operates the Stowers Institute, which conducts non-profit biomedical research out of Kansas City, with a $2 billion endowment.  The Stowers Institute has formed a for-profit branch, BioMed Valley Discoveries Inc., part of the BioMed Valley Partnership, which was set up to “patent, develop and market the discoveries of the Stowers Institute,” and its partners, to pharmaceutical and medical giants such as Pfizer and Merck.

The BioMed Valley Partnership includes Kansas University and the University of Missouri-Kansas City--researchers pass their work to BioMed Valley Discoveries in exchange for funding endowments.

While profits from the corporation are currently re-invested in the Institute’s work, according to officials, the board of directors are free to change that policy at any time.

Board members with the Institute serve on both the non-profit and for-profit branches of the conglomerate simultaneously. The close interplay between the Stowers’ non-profit and for-profit entities reportedly caught the attention of the IRS several years ago, Fox News stated.

Records also show Jim and Virginia Stowers have made significant donations to members of the legislature who support their research.

Read Fox News coverage:

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,227465,00.html

See related LifeSiteNews coverage:
Missouri Cloning Amendment Deceptively Claims to Ban Cloning
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/oct/06101305.html

Scientists and Experts Declare Amendment 2 Creates Constitutional Right for Human Cloning
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/nov/06110303.html

Signatories to Declaration that Missouri Amendment 2 Endorses Human Cloning
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/nov/061103a.html

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