Vatican City, Jun 16, 2011 / 10:35 am
The Vatican has signed its first ever commercial agreement with an outside company. The contract with U.S.-based bio-pharmaceutical firm NeoStem will advance ethical research into stem cells.
“We would like to create a hotspot for scientists, benefactors, academics (and) Church leaders that will now join this group and would work together for the benefit of humanity,”Fr. Tomaz Trafny of the Vatican’s Council for Culture told CNA June 16.
The deal was announced before the global media in Rome this morning.
“We are a public company pioneering new medical research with adult stem cells,” explained Doctor Robin Smith, the CEO of NeoStem.