This year New England municipalities havecountered Nestle's aggressive expansion by passing moratoriums

This year, New England municipalities havecountered Nestle's aggressive expansion by passing moratoriums on waterbottling. Still, Nestle continues to seek new bottling sites in the region.In Florida, flexing its muscle. The corporation is fighting a Florida stateproposal to tax bottlers to more fairly compensate the public for withdrawals."With Nestle the story is always the same, the only difference is theaddress," said Terry Swier of Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation.Swier's organization is involved in a protracted legal battle with Nestle overthe bottling of water from a protected area in Northern Michigan. An earlyruling determined that Nestle's pumps were likely to narrow streams, exposemud flats and reduce flow levels."Nestle is determined to run us dry in more ways than one and no amount oftalk about being a 'good neighbor' will change that fact," said Swier.Nestle's tactics for undermining local control of water goes well beyond thecourts. It has done everything from engineering backroom deals to runningmanipulative PR campaigns to put a green veneer on its brands.Downstream from its bottling sites, Nestle's green public relations machine isalso a force. This leaves Think Outside the Bottle and allies wonderingwhether the corporation will follow through on other environmental commitmentsit has made on paper.Grassroots pressure has forced Nestle to commit, in word, to full sourcelabeling and improved water testing disclosure."'Green is as green does,' which may be a hard lesson for Nestle to learngiven the corporation's history has been, 'green is as green says,'" saidDeborah Lapidus, national organizer for Think Outside the Bottle.

"If Nestlegets the message in the bottle, it'll change course and start honoringcommunities' right to protect their local water resources and follow throughon its promises to consumers."SOURCECorporate Accountability InternationalSara Joseph, +1-617-784-5278, or Nick Guroff, +1-617-695-2525, both ofCorporate Accountability International. Fate Therapeutics and Stemgent Launch Catalyst: A Unique Industry Program forFirst Access to the Most Advanced Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell TechnologyCatalyst to Provide Proprietary Protein and Small Molecule Products for theGeneration and Differentiation of Genomically-Unaltered Induced PluripotentStem (iPS) CellsLA JOLLA, Calif. and BOSTON, April 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Fate Therapeutics, Inc.and Stemgent, Inc. announced today the formation of Catalyst, a collaborativeone-of-a-kind program to provide pharmaceutical and biotechnology companieswith the most advanced induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell technology platformfor drug discovery and development.Catalyst will include the revolutionary protein-based reprogramming technologypioneered by Sheng Ding, Ph.D., published for the first time today in CellStem Cell.Dr.

Ding, an associate professor of The Scripps Research Instituteand scientific founder of Fate Therapeutics and Stemgent, is the first toreport the creation of iPS cells using cell-penetrating proteins, a techniquethat effectively eliminates any risk of genetic modification.Catalyst willalso include pioneering discoveries by Rudolf Jaenisch, M.D., a foundingmember of the Whitehead Institute, scientific founder of Fate Therapeutics andscientific advisory board member of Stemgent, who last month produced thefirst Parkinson's disease patient-derived iPS cells free of viralreprogramming factors. In exchange for annual funding, Catalyst member companies will gain exclusiveaccess to proprietary iPS cell technology, including specific iPS-derivedcells for toxicity testing and primary screening.Fate Therapeutics andStemgent will jointly guide and share the expenses of the development ofproducts under Catalyst.Revolutionary Products Available for First Time"The creation of Catalyst represents the first time that many of these cuttingedge technologies will be made available to industry," said Ian Ratcliffe,Stemgent's president and chief executive officer "Dr. Ding, Fate Therapeutics and Stemgenthave developed small molecules and proteins for the safe and efficientcreation of high quality iPS cells that can reproducibly differentiate intoessential cell types for drug discovery and development."Catalyst's technology - creating and differentiating iPS cells into distinctcell types - will uncover the essential epigenetic and gene expressionprofiles associated with the derivation of specific cell lineages," said Mr.Grayson. "These same technologies will prove critical in our discovery anddevelopment of conventional pharmaceuticals to guide cell fate for therapeuticbenefit."About Fate Therapeutics, Inc.