In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Obama called for America to become “the country that cures cancer once and for all.” While there are not many specifics on the ambitious proposal, Obama announced that Vice President Joe Biden will lead the initiative. Biden’s son, former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, died at the age of 46 last year after a battle with brain cancer.
“Last year, Vice President Biden said that with a new moonshot, America can cure cancer. Last month, he 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.”
As Biden smiled from his seat behind the president, Obama said he would put him in charge of ‘mission control’ for the effort.
Biden wrote about his plans for the initiative on his verified Medium account, saying he wanted to “increase resources both private and public to fight cancer” and “break down silos and bring all the cancer fighters together” to share information and work together.
“Innovations in data and technology offer the promise to speed research advances and improve care delivery,” Biden wrote. “But the science, data, and research results are trapped in silos, preventing faster progress and greater reach to patients. It’s not just about developing game-changing treatments — it’s about delivering them to those who need them.”
While scientists are constantly discovering new aspects of how cancers develop or return after treatment, experts say new prevention measures could put a huge dent in the number of expected cancer diagnoses.
Biden, who lost his 46-year old son Beau to brain cancer in May last year, received a standing ovation from lawmakers as Obama made the announcement. Following his son’s death, Biden, 73, said he would not run for president in 2016, after wrestling with doubts about whether he and his family were ready for a grueling campaign while still in mourning.He promised he would focus his remaining time in office on working on a ‘moonshot’ to end cancer.
Biden will travel on Friday to the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine to speak with physicians and next week he will meet with experts at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland to discuss the initiative.
The cancer initiative will build upon the $2 billion increase in funding approved for the National Institutes of Health last year, White House chief economist Jason Furman told reporters ahead of Obama speech.
Earlier this month, private companies and academic cancer centers joined together to launch their own mission to fight cancer. The Cancer Moonshot 2020 program is aimed at developing a vaccine-based immunotherapy to combat cancer by the end of the decade.
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