President Biden Reports on Cancer Moonshot Initiative

On Monday, Sept. 12, President Biden spoke at the Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, outlining the progress and new initiatives as part of the Cancer Moonshot

President Biden announced several new actions that the Administration is taking to advance cancer research, including:

• Appointing Dr. Renee Wegrzyn as the inaugural director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, a new agency intended to drive biomedical innovation.
• Signing an Executive Order to launch a National Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Initiative. This initiative is intended to grow the strength and diversity of domestic biomanufacturing capacity, expand market opportunities for bio-based products through federal programs, drive research and development across all relevant agencies, streamline and harmonize appropriate regulation, and prioritize investments in applied biosafety research in biosecurity to reduce risk throughout research and development lifecycles; and,
• President Biden described The Cancer Cabinet’s progress towards delivering cancer detection technologies and supporting talented researchers from across the United States, including:
  • the launch of a new four-year pilot study by the National Cancer Institute on effective blood tests for multi-cancer detection.
  • the Cancer Moonshot Scholars, a new early-career grant opportunity to invest in the next generation of innovative cancer researchers with a focus on developing a cancer research workforce that is more representative of the U.S. population; and,
  • Telehealth Research Centers of Excellence or TRACE, which will study the role of telehealth in cancer prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, survivorship, and equity of access and outcomes. Four funded research centers will conduct large trials in real-world clinical settings to determine whether the use of telehealth can effectively deliver quality cancer care.