Vice President Biden will head pursuit of cancer cure
WASHINGTON — President Obama announced during his State of the Union Address that he’s putting Vice President Biden in charge of carrying out the “moonshot” to cure cancer that Biden called for following his son’s death.
"Last month, (Biden) worked with this Congress to give scientists at the National Institutes of Health the strongest resources they’ve had in over a decade," Obama said. "Tonight, I’m announcing a new national effort to get it done. And because he’s gone to the mat for all of us, on so many issues over the past forty years, I’m putting Joe in charge of Mission Control. For the loved ones we’ve all lost, for the family we can still save, let’s make America the country that cures cancer once and for all."
Biden, in announcing his decision to not run for president in October, said the country needs “a moonshot” to cure cancer and vowed to spend his next 15 months in office fighting for increased funding for research and development. He said the issue is “personal” to him after the loss of his 46-year-old son, Beau, Delaware’s former attorney general, to brain cancer on May 30.
In a post Tuesday night on his Medium channel, Biden wrote that cancer research and therapies are “on the cusp of incredible breakthroughs” but science, data and research results are “trapped in silos, preventing faster progress and greater reach to patients.”
He wrote that he plans to increase public and private resources to fight cancer and break down “silos” to help cancer fighters share information and work together. Later this month he will chair the first of several meetings with cabinet secretaries and heads of relevant agencies to discuss ways to boost funding for cancer research and treatment.
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“The goal of this initiative is simple — to double the rate of progress,” he wrote in the post that appeared during Obama’s address. “To make a decade worth of advances in five years.”
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Biden and his staff have participated in dozens of listening sessions over the last few months to learn about the current state of cancer research and treatment and potential opportunities to advance the pace of progress, according to his office.
His staff met on Friday with a panel of 15 cancer researchers and physician-scientists, convened by the American Association for Cancer Research, to discuss the potential in areas such as precision medicine and immunotherapy.
“There’s no question they are in the process of compiling information, talking to the broader cancer research community, so they can get a broad spectrum of ideas,” said Jon Retzlaff, AACR’s policy director.
Retzlaff credited lobbying by Biden and other congressional leaders with helping secure a $2-billion increase for NIH in this year’s spending legislation, the most significant increase in NIH funding in a dozen years. The National Cancer Institute, which is part of NIH and the federal government's principal agency for cancer research and training, saw more than a 5% funding boost, he said.
“He was calling on people at the very end to get the omnibus (spending bill) passed,” Retzlaff said. “He’s been a tremendous supporter of medical research throughout his tenure as Vice President, as well as during his time in Congress.”
The House passed "21st Century Cures" legislation in July that includes provisions designed to foster collaborative research and data-sharing. Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Biden is committed to helping get "important, bipartisan reforms through the Senate and into law" after the two spoke before Obama's address.
“The talk of a ‘moon shot’ is the exact mindset we need - America can and should lead the way,” Upton said in a statement following Obama's address. “We welcome every voice, including the president’s and vice president’s to the conversation, as we work to get 21st Century Cures across the finish line. The clock is ticking for every family facing an incurable disease.”
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said during a Tuesday briefing with regional reporters that there is bipartisan interest in investments in medical innovation and research and development. Republican interest in the economic and scientific benefits of investments in medical breakthroughs is “clearly consistent with the kind of a ‘moon shot’ that the vice president has talked about,” Earnest said.
“I would add that to the list of things that we’re hopeful we can make some progress with Congress on this year,” he said.
Biden has met over the past few months with nearly 200 of the world’s top cancer physicians, researchers and philanthropists.
On Friday, he heads to the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine to talk to their physicians and researchers. He meets next week with international experts at the National Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“This is our moonshot,” Biden wrote in the Medium post. “I know that we can help solidify a genuine global commitment to end cancer as we know it today — and inspire a new generation of scientists to pursue new discoveries and the bounds of human endeavor.
Contributing: Gregory Korte, USA TODAY
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