Public-Private Partnerships Aim to Bolster ‘Cancer
Public-Private Partnerships Aim to Bolster ‘Cancer Moonshot’ Initiative | 2016-07-01 |
WASHINGTON—Vice President Joe Biden announced a series of partnerships involving government, industry and academia that are aimed at bolstering the White House’s proposed $1 billion “cancer moonshot” to speed up the national fight against the disease.
The alliances were disclosed Wednesday at the outset of more than 270 events around the country to kick off the cancer effort, including a meeting at Howard University in Washington, D.C., billed as the Cancer Moonshot summit.
Among the new ventures described by Mr. Biden and the White House are a partnership between the National Cancer Institute and at least 20 drug and biotechnology companies to expedite researchers’ access to drugs, both investigational and approved.
Vice President Joe Biden gave the opening remarks at the Cancer Moonshot summit in Washington, and spoke of his decision not to run for president. Photo: AP
The moonshot has been greeted in the medical community with considerable enthusiasm for the new research funding and collaboration, but also with skepticism that these steps alone would expedite research and treatment.
At Wednesday morning’s session, Mr. Biden said he had no illusions that his effort could end cancer quickly, but told researchers and patients in the audience he believed “we can make exponential progress, and make 10 years of progress in five years.”
Saying scientists, industry and patient groups need to share more information, the vice president called for a new sense of urgency in cancer research and therapy development.
“Time matters. Days matter. Minutes matter,” he said. “We need to be sure that research results are available” to all researchers immediately. He criticized many in science for failing to publish results immediately and thereby slowing the progress of drug discovery. “Maybe there’s an explanation” for that, he said. “I haven’t heard it yet.”
Most of the $1 billion in funding requested by the White House is being considered in Congress. The House last year passed legislation that would significantly boost research money, including the cancer moonshot, while also speeding drug and device approvals at the Food and Drug Administration.
Companion legislation in the Senate was approved by the health committee, but lawmakers are still negotiating over how to pay for the research part of it. There has also been some concern about tying the research money to the FDA regulatory provisions, which some groups see as lowering the agency’s safety standards.
The moonshot task force said cancer-treatment-related patents under the program would be reviewed more quickly than other patent applications. Also, the FDA would consolidate the review of drugs, devices and biological products in a single Oncology Center of Excellence. The new center’s acting director will be Dr. Richard Pazdur, chief of the FDA’s office of oncology drug review.
As part of the national effort, medical groups such as the American Cancer Society would commit to ambitious new goals, with some agreeing to try to double their research budgets over the next five years. IBM and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
