US Justice Dept appeals ruling against embryonic stem cell research

The USA's Department of Justice has appealed a district judge's ruling to ban federal funding of embryonic stem cell in the US District Court in Washington DC, declaring that it wanted Judge Royce Lamberth to lift the injunction he imposed last week (The Pharma Letters August 26 and 31).

It pointed out that the injunction was harming current federally funded human embryonic stem cell research and could force a halt to all research that is subject to government funding."Numerous ongoing projects will likely not survive even a temporary gap in funds, jeopardizing both the potential benefit of the research and the hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds already invested in it," the DoJ said in its request.

Judge Lamberth issued a temporary injunction to federal funding of embryonic stem cell on August 23, saying it involved the destruction of human embryos. The injunction was a blow to the Obama administration, which approved federal funds for expanded embryonic stem cell research on March 9, 2009. The injunction immediately halted National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding at academic and private research labs on embryonic stem cells