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Biden cancer ‘moonshot’ to carry $1B price tag
Posted On Feb 03 2016
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Today, the White House announced plans for a $1 billion investment toward the National Cancer Moonshot initiative aimed at the elimination of cancer, as we know it. Under the proposal, $195 million in new cancer research will be dedicated this year, and the president will propose $755 million for cancer research in his fiscal year 2017 budget due out next week.
The White House said Monday it is devoting $1 billion to the effort initially, largely from existing funds, to speed up progress in cancer research in areas ranging from vaccines to early detection technology. “With something as big as cancer we have to think big”. Administration officials previewed the plan for reporters Monday, but would not speak on the record. Biden explained to the officials that the task force will “take a whole-of-government approach” and go into a decade of research in five years.
Prior to a 5 percent increase last year in the National Cancer Institute’s budget, spending on the primary federal cancer research agency had been mostly flat during Obama’s seven years as president.
The administration will also ask for additional funding for the Pentagon and Veterans Affairs for “centers of excellence” on specific cancers, the White House said. The White House also has promised to boost data sharing among researchers who in the past have tended to keep a close hold on their proprietary work.
The funding announcement comes the same day that Biden will convene a meeting of the cancer task force created by Obama last week.
After the president unveiled the initiative, there was some skepticism among oncologists about how much difference the so-called moonshot will make.
Mr. Obama announced the initiative in his State of the Union speech January 12 and put Vice President Joe Biden in charge of the effort.
The President’s already established a cancer task force with Biden at the helm. “The science is ready for the concerted new effort this initiative will deliver”, the White House said in a press release.
