Proposition 38 divides the funding equally between a University of California-affiliated nonprofit institute and competitive research grants, setting up a new state program in immunology and immunotherapy.
California voters have approved Proposition 38, authorizing $8.4 billion in borrowing for research on the immune system. Nature said on 10 November that the measure is the largest allocation for science ever authorized by a public vote in US history. Officials counted ballots for nearly a week after the midterm election before declaring the proposal successful.
The vote follows earlier California research bonds: voters approved $3 billion in 2004 to establish the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine after federal restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research, then approved another $5.5 billion in 2020.
Immunology studies the immune system and how it protects the body from abnormal cells and other causes of disease. Immunotherapy develops treatments that help the system fight disease more effectively. At least $4.2 billion must support immunology research on cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease.
The official ballot summary divides the money equally between one nonprofit medical research institute affiliated with the University of California and grants for public or nonprofit universities and institutions. A council representing 7 University of California campuses and 10 to 15 other California universities and nonprofit research institutions will set priorities and select grant recipients from its member organizations through a competitive process.
The California Department of Public Health will select the institute using criteria that include its size, funding and collaboration with a University of California campus. Nature said the only institute currently meeting the criteria was co-founded by Gary Michelson, a billionaire medical-device inventor who wrote the measure and contributed about $45 million of his own money to put it on the ballot and campaign for it.
California will finance the research by selling general obligation bonds, a form of borrowing repaid with interest from the state’s General Fund, which pays for most public services. The Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates repayment will cost the fund $500 million to $600 million annually for about 20 years. It estimates that interest will make the total cost about 10% higher, after adjusting for inflation, than paying upfront with existing money.
The measure requires recipients to sell drugs and technology developed from the research in California at 20% below the national average price. Those discounts depend on products being developed and sold; new treatments must pass development, testing and regulatory review before patients can use them, and most research projects do not complete every stage.
The measure directs 10% of licensing royalties to the General Fund until the borrowed amount and interest are repaid; additional state revenue afterward would support further immunology and immunotherapy research. The analyst’s office says revenue depends on marketable discoveries and their earnings, and that offsetting the bond costs could take decades. The state must repay the bonds even if discoveries do not generate enough revenue.
President Donald Trump’s administration has pushed major science-funding cuts, placed political appointees in charge of federal grant decisions and forced policy changes at federally funded universities. Antoni Ribas, a cancer researcher and physician at the University of California, Los Angeles who supported the measure, says the funding will allow immunology research to continue regardless of political headwinds.
The health department must select the institute, while the grant council will set research priorities and choose recipients. Both the institute and council face public reporting and independent financial audit requirements.
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