After 15 years and $150 million Geron stops experimenting on human embryonic stem cells: The first company ever permitted to test human embryonic stem cells on people, announced Monday it is halting the studies to focus on developing two cancer drugs. Researchers have long held out hope that embryonic stem cells would be the key to treating a variety of ailments because they can turn into any type of tissue in the body and be reproduced in vast quantities in laboratories. But studies to develop treatments from them have been subject to delays in part because of ethical concerns surrounding the cells, which are harvested from discarded 3-to-5-day-old embryos. Monday's decision throws into question the future of the most-advanced study so far and puts a cloud over the commercial viability of stem cell treatments.
Editor: What happens to those already in the study?
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