At the firm, we strongly welcome the news that on Wednesday, President Joe Biden relaunched the White House’s “Cancer Moonshot” initiative. This initiative aims to reduce the cancer death rate by at least 50% over the next 25 years.
Biden named Dr. Danielle Carnival, a member of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, as the Cancer Moonshot coordinator.
Our firm represents many victims of drug-induced cancers (Valsartan, Zantac, Talcum Powder) as well as medical malpractice clients who have suffered from failure to diagnose or delayed diagnosis of cancers. We are proud supporters of cancer charities such as Memorial Sloan Kettering and the American Cancer Society. We understand the suffering people and their families go through.
In addition, Biden announced the formation of the “cancer cabinet”, an organization made up of representatives from:
- · the Departments of Health and Human Services
- · Veterans Affairs
- · Defense
- · Energy and Agriculture,
- · the Environmental Protection Agency,
- · the National Institutes of Health,
- · the National Cancer Institute
- · and others across the executive branch.
In doing this, the President hopes to fight cancer with “a fierce sense of urgency”, pledging to provide better support to cancer patients and their families.
The relaunch of the Cancer Moonshot initiative however does not include any new funding. In 2016, Congress authorized $1.8 billion to fund the program over seven years. This allows $400 million in funding to still be authorized during 2022 and 2023.
Both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have a personal incentive to fight against cancer as they have lost loved ones to the disease.
In 2015, Beau Biden, the President’s eldest son died at age 46 after battling brain cancer. Similarly, the Vice President lost her mother Shyamala Gopalan to colon cancer in 2009.
At a Whitehouse event, Vice President Harris stated “I miss my mother every day, and I carry her memory with me wherever I go. When President Biden launched his Cancer Moonshot five years ago, I of course thought of my mother.”
In addition to the cancer cabinet and cancer moonshot initiative, the White House will host a Cancer Moonshot Summit. This event aims to bring “together agency leadership, patient organizations, biopharmaceutical companies, the research, public health, and healthcare communities and more to highlight innovation, progress, and new commitments toward ending cancer as we know it,”. Biden also plans on launching a website where all Americans can track the progress of the initiative’s mission.
