California voters approve $8.4 billion for immunology research

California voters have approved $8.4 billion for immunology research through Proposition 38, Nature reported after enough ballots were counted to establish its passage. The state will sell bonds to finance research into treatments that harness or re-engineer the immune system against diseases including cancer and Alzheimer's. Around $4 billion will fund competitive grants at select California public universities and nonprofit institutes. Commercialized therapies developed through funded research must be sold at a 20% discount to Californians, with 10% of drug royalties returning to the state's general fund. The measure directs about half the funding to research institutes under criteria that only an institute co-founded by the proposition's author, Gary Michelson, meets.